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"MAKERS OF AMERICA 



ROBERT FULTON 



HIS LIFE AND ITS RESULTS 



BY 



ROBERT H. THURSTON 



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Sol /I. wL/ 



NEW YORK 

DODD, MEAD, AND COMPANY 
Publishers 



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Copyright, 1891, 
By DopD, Mead, and Co. 

%4« rights reserved. 



John Wilson and Son, Cambridge. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Old Legends. — Steam in Earlier 

Times. — James Watt i 

II. Early Experiments in Steam-Naviga- 
tion .... 28 

III. Robert Fulton's Early Life .... 48 

IV. The Artist as Engineer 60 

V. The Engineer, as Inventor, in Sub- 
marine Warfare . 69 

VI. Fulton's Experiments with Steam. — 

The "Clermont" loi 

VII. River and Ocean Steam-Fleets ... 146 

VIII. Ocean Steamers. — The Outlook . . 167 



ROBERT FULTON. 



I. 



OLD LEGENDS. STEAM IN EARLIER TIMES. 

JAMES WATT. 

Robert Fulton has often, if not generally, been 
assumed to have been the inventor of the steamboat, 
as Watt is generally supposed to be the inventor of 
the steam-engine, which constitutes its motive ap- 
paratus. But this notion is quite incorrect. The 
invention of the steam-engine and that of the steam- 
boat alike are the results of the inventive genius, not 
of any one man or of any dozen men, but have been 
the outcome of the inventive powers of the human 
race, exerted at intervals throughout the whole period 
of recorded history. An invention is usually, or is 
at least assumed to be, the product of the genius of 
some great mechanic, acting, as did the genii of old, 
by a single effort of the mysterious power. In this 
sense of the word, the steam-engine was never in- 
vented ; rather it is the culmination of a long series 
of inventions of detail, and of improvements upon 
the earliest crude conceptions, and is the product of 
growth in a definite direction, and toward a now well- 
defined end. / But while Fulton was not the inventor 
of the steamboat, and while James Watt was not the 



2 ROBERT FULTON. 

inventor of the steam-engine, in a proper sense, it 
is the unquestionable fact that the latter was the first 
to secure a general introduction of the machine into 
practical use ; and the former was the first to make 
the steamboat a commercial success, and to make 
its ultimate and permanent employment for marine 
transportation sure. As an inventor, Fulton accom- 
plished far less than Watt ; in fact, he did compara- 
tively little in this realm of intellect. Watt invented 
many improvements of the steam-engine, and left it 
in vastly better form than when he found it, as it came 
from the hands of his predecessors, Newcomen and 
Galley. He gave the already well-shaped machine 
the separate condenser, the steam-jacket, the double- 
acting form, the rotative type, the expansive system, 
the governor, and the " engineer's stethoscope," — 
the indicator. Fulton did nothing to modify the 
engine, or to improve the steamboat even. He simply 
took the products of the genius of other mechanics, 
and set them at work, in combination, and then ap- 
plied the already known steamboat, in his more satis- 
factorily proportioned form, to a variety of useful 
purposes, and with final success. /it is this which 
constitutes Fulton's claim upon the gratitude and the 
remembrance of the nations. And it is quite enough. 
The knowledge of the expansive power of steam 
was of earlier date than the Christian era ; forms of 
steam-engine antedated Watt by two thousand years ; 
the modern type of steam-engine was the invention 
of Newcomen rather than of Watt, and preceded that 
famous improver by nearly a century ; the steamboat 



OLD LEGENDS. 3 

was said to have been constructed by several inven- 
tors long before the world witnessed the birth of 
Fulton ; other inventors had built and successfully 
operated steamboats with paddles, other boats with 
wheels, steam-vessels with screws, long before Fulton 
entered upon his great and glorious career. The 
simple fact is, therefore, as already indicated, that, 
like all really great and important inventions, these 
were the final fruition of minute germs of invention 
in earlier centuries, growing and gaining, century by 
century, throughout long periods of time. The fa- 
mous inventor is usually he who in the end brings 
into full bearing the hitherto unknown and unnoticed 
invention, — he who at last makes it useful to man- 
kind. This last was the mission of Fulton ; and it is this 
which has entitled him to all the credit as an engineer, 
and all the fame, which has been indisputably his. 

Before taking up our study of the life of Fulton, 
and of its magnificent results, as already exhibited 
after less than a century has passed, it will be both 
interesting and profitable to review the past, and 
learn, as well as history permits, the details of that 
growth which has led us finally to such wonderful 
fruition. In doing so, we will follow the thread of 
the narrative as it has already been given by the 
author in a more formal treatise.^ 

A rapid summary of the facts, and a study of their 
relations to our subject, beginning with earliest his- 
tory, and following this development up to the time 
of Fulton, will enable us to more intelhgently and 

1 History of the Growth of the Steam-Engine, by R. H 
Thurston. New York. D. Appleton & Co. 1878. 



4 ROBERT FULTON. 

satisfactorily weigh our debt to that great man, and 
measure the obUgation of the world, and especially 
of his own country. 

The knowledge of the latent power of steam prob- 
ably antedates history ; rude forms of apparatus for 
utilizing that force are described in the earliest of 
ancient works ; yet the invention of a steam-engine, 
in the proper sense of that term, only took place 
within two centuries, and the steam-engine of the 
present time has been the outcome of a succession of 
inventions and improvements which are only now 
culminating in the production of an engine which' 
science indicates to be that which must be regarded 
as the final form of that remarkable motor. The 
principles of its construction, and especially those of 
its operation, are now well understood, and all its 
faults and wastes of either heat-energy or mechanical 
power are known and measured, their causes ascer- 
tained, and, in a general way, their methods of rem- 
edy determined. We are now gradually overcoming 
the practical obstacles to the reduction of the machine 
to the best possible proportions, and its plan to the 
ideal form. The history of the steam-engine is ex- 
ceedingly interesting, and to the philosopher especially 
so, as illustrating the fact that " great inventions are 
rarely the work of any one mind," but are " either 
an aggregation of minor inventions or the final step 
of a progression ; " " not a creation, but a growth, — 
as truly so as that of the trees in the forest." ^ 

1 History of the Growth of the Steam-Engine, by R. H. 
Thurston. New York. D, Appleton & Co. (International 
Series.) 



OLD LEGENDS. 



The first account of what has been termed the 
germ of the steam-engine appears in the works of 
Hero the Younger, who hved, as is supposed, in the 
second century before Christ, at Alexandria, in Egypt. 
In his " Pneumatica " he describes a multitude of 
devices, s o m e o f 
them very ingenious, 
but mainly mere toys, 
in which the heat- 
energy of fire, or of 
the sun, is applied for 
transformation into 
mechanical power 
through the interme- 
diary of steam. He 
shows several forms 
of fountain, now 
known as the Hero 
fountain ; contrivan- 
ces for opening tem- 
ple doors by steam ; 
musical instruments^ 

— at least, so called, 

— and other such un- 
important trifles. Amongst this collection of curious 
illustrations of the non-utilitarian character of the 
Greek civilization, is found a real steam-engine, such 
as is illustrated by the accompanying engraving.^ 

The picture here given is a modern and highly 

1 Thurston's Manual of the Steam-Boiler, p. 2. New York. 
J. Wiley & Sons. 1890. 




Fig. I. — Hero's Steam-Engine. 



6 ROBERT FULTON. 

ornamented reproduction of Hero's machine, which 
is earliest shown in Stuart's " History of the Steam- 
Engine," 1829, and reproduced by the author in 
later publications. Curiously enough, this little ma- 
chine, which has often been reproduced, unwittingly, 
by modern inventors, and actually used with a fair 
degree of satisfaction, illustrates a form of engine 
which is " theoretically," ideally perfect. Its opera- 
tion under the theoretically best conditions, assum- 
ing it made with similar perfection and to be free 
from friction-wastes, would give highest possible effi- 
ciency and economy in the use of steam. But this 
would involve its operation at inapproachable veloci- 
ties and the impracticable condition of being friction- 
less; nevertheless, it is perfectly possible to secure 
such favourable conditions in practice as will make a 
fairly economical machine, when placed in comparison 
with the forms of engine which modern invention has 
produced. Its action is simple and easily seen. 
Steam is made in the boiler which forms its base, and 
passes up through one or both of the hollow support- 
ing columns or pipes, entering the axis of the whirl- 
ing globe, filling it at a pressure determined by the 
rate at which steam is formed ; and it is then ex- 
panded, finally issuing from the projecting arms or 
ajutages, and by its reaction turning the globe with 
considerable force and at high speed. Modern en- 
gines of this construction have been used quite suc- 
cessfully in driving factories and mills, and have been 
found to use no very extravagant amount of steam ; 
but have finally been thrown out, on account, mainly, 



STEAM IN EARLIER TIMES. 7 

of their cost for repairs ; the whirHng arms being usu- 
ally rapidly cut away by their swift passage through 
the steam-laden atmosphere in which they necessarily 
work. Ideally, the machine is an " expansion- 
engine " of the most perfect type. 

From the days of Hero, however, nothing more is 
heard of the use of steam in any apparatus, nor is 
any machine produced capable of doing work in that 
manner. All through the early and the middle ages 
the force of confined steam and other vapours is evi- 
dently known, but no attempt that may be regarded 
as at all serious was made to utilize its latent power. 
Little "seolipiles" — -vessels in which steam was pro- 
duced and from which it issued in a jet which was 
sometimes employed to cause an induced current of 
air with which to blow the fire — were the only steam- 
engines, until, about the sixteenth century, it seems to 
have been suspected by one or another of the wool- 
gathering philosophers and the plodding mechanics of 
those days that steam had a somewhat higher mis- 
sion. At about the end of that century and the 
beginning of the seventeenth, we find records of 
various contrivances, in the application of steam to 
useful purposes, which indicate that at last the 
minds of men were awakening to the consideration of 
the problem of the centuries. These inventions, if 
it can be said, fairly, that they were inventions, 
were commonly directed to the application of 
the force of confined steam to the raising of water 
through considerable heights, as in the draining 
of mines, or in furnishing a house-supply. Da Porta, 



8 ROBERT FULTON. 

in 1 60 1, De Caus in 1605 to 16 15, and Branca, 
1629, were among those who began to suggest, rather 
than to practise, the apphcation of steam to useful 
work. The first two pictured contrivances for raising 
water, which were, however, but distant imitations 
of the notions of Hero ; while the last-named gave 
drawings, with some elaboration, of machines, by the 
action of steam-jets, usually impinging against vanes, 
driving mills and metallurgical machinery. 

At about the latter time, the second Marquis of 
Worcester began his now famous career of invention, 
and probably as early as 1630 had devised what is 
known as his "engine" or his " fire-engine ;" a 
machine, however, which was really but the Hero 
fountain on an enlarged and somewhat more practi- 
cally available scale, and in better form. He did 
apply it to its purpose of raising water, though ; and 
this constitutes for him a legitimate and sufficient 
claim for remembrance and honour. He was the 
first to use steam — so far as is positively known — 
for industrial ends. It is known that he was engaged 
in erecting an engine at least as early as 1648, but 
his patents were only issued in 1663. It seems very 
certain that the marquis built two or more of these 
" fire-engines ; " but their exact form is unknown, 
and it is only certain that he profited nothing by his 
ingenuity and enterprise. He finally died unsuccess- 
ful and in comparative poverty. His widow was as 
unhappy and unfortunate as her husband, and died in 
1 68 1 without having gained a foothold for her spouse's 
invention. 



STEAM IN EARLIER TIMES. 9 

The death of this truly great man, inventor and 
statesman as he was, in the highest sense, did not, 
however, put an end to the progress which he had 
initiated. His friend and successor in this work, Sir 
Samuel Morland, made himself thoroughly familiar 
with the subject, secured opportunities to construct 
a number of such engines, and became so well in- 
formed as to their capabilities that he published an 
account of the apparatus, in which paper he intro- 
duced tables of the number and sizes of the working 
cylinders required to raise given quantities of water to 
specified heights in stated times ; thus, for the first time, 
constructing the now usual specifications for use in de- 
termining the requirements of purchasers. Yet neither 
the machines of Worcester nor those of Morland be- 
came generally used. These men were in advance 
of their time ; and it was only when, some years 
later. Captain Savery, — a man of talent both as an 
engineer and a man of business, whose character 
united all the elements of success in practical opera- 
tions, — took up the task that it became in any degree 
a commercial success. Very little is kno\vn in detail 
of the experiments or of the constructions of the 
Marquis of Worcester ; and that absorbing romance 
by George Macdonald, "St. George and St. Michael," 
may perhaps be taken as quite as. authoritative as any 
biography, so far as such minor details are concerned ; 
but the work of Savery, nearly a half-century later, 
came within the range of modern history, and is well 
understood. 

When Savery took up the new problem, at the 



lO ROBERT FULTON. 

opening of the eighteenth century, the mines of Great 
Britain had become, in many instances, so deep that 
the labour of freeing them from water was an enor- 
mously difficult and expensive task with the means and 
apparatus at the disposition of the mine- owners. 
They had rude forms of pump worked by horse-power 
almost exclusively ; and in the older and more exten- 
sive mines, hundreds of horses were sometimes kept 
at work, and the profits of mining were becoming daily 
less and less, and seemed likely to be soon ex- 
tinguished by this great tax on production. Worces- 
ter and his contemporaries had seen this threatening 
outlook, and were apprehensive that Britain might 
soon lose that supremacy, industrially, which she had, 
in consequence of her success in mining, up to that 
time so firmly held. They had, in many cases, looked 
to steam or some as yet undiscovered motor to do 
this work more cheaply than horse-power ; but even 
Worcester and Morland failed to make practically 
useful application of the new "fire-engine." Savery, 
familiar with the business of mining, a mechanic by 
experience and practice as well as by nature, not only 
saw the opportunity, but saw also a way to secure a 
prize. He made a workmanlike reproduction of the 
Worcester machine, giving it a form capable of im- 
mediate and effective application to the intended pur- 
pose. This is his device, as built by him for mines, 
and as described by him to the Royal Society, then 
already (1698) formed and in operation, and to the 
public through his little book, " The Miner's Friend ; 
or, A Description of an Engine to raise Water by 



STEAM IN EARLIER TIMES. 



II 



Fire described, and the Manner of fixing it in Mines, 
with an Account of the several Uses it is apph- 
cable to, and an Answer to the Objections against it. 
Printed in London in 1702 for S. Crouch." It was 




Fig. 2. — Savery's Engine, A. d. 1702. 

distributed among the proprietors and managers of 
mines, who were then finding the flow of water at 
depths so great as, in some cases, to bar further 
progress. 

The engraving of the engine was reproduced, with 
the description, in Harris's " Lexicon Technicum," 



12 ROBERT FULTON. 

1704; in Switzer's ''Hydrostatics," 1729; and in 
Desagulier's "Experimental Philosophy," 1744.-^ 

In Figure 2, ZZ is the boiler in which steam is 
raised, and through the pipes O O '\\. is alternately let 
into the vessels PP. Suppose it to pass into the left- 
hand vessel first. The valve M being closed, and r 
being opened, the water contained in P is driven out 
and up the pipe S to the desired height, where it is 
discharged. The valve r is then closed, and the valve 
in the pipe O; the valve J/ is next opened, and con- 
densing water is turned upon the exterior of P by the 
cock Y, leading water from the cistern X. As the 
steam contained in P is condensed, forming a vacuum 
there, a fresh charge of water is driven by atmospheric 
pressure up the pipe T. Meantime, steam from the 
boiler has been let into the right-hand vessel Pp, the 
cock W having been first closed, and R opened. The 
charge of water is driven out through the lower pipe 
and the cock R, and up the pipe S as before, while 
the other vessel is refilling preparatory to acting in its 
turn. The two vessels are thus alternately charged 
and discharged, as long as is necessary. 

Savery's method of supplying his boiler with water 
was as follows : — 

The small boiler, D, is filled with water from any 
convenient source, as from the stand-pipe, S. A fire 
is then built under it, and when the pressure of steam 
in D becomes greater than in the main boiler, Z, a 
communication is opened between their lower ends, 

1 Our illustration is from Thurston's " History of the Steam- 
Engine," p, 37. New York. D. Appleton & Co. 



STEAM IN EARLIER TIMES. 13 

and the water passes, under pressure, from the smaller 
to the larger boiler, which is thus "fed" without in- 
terrupting the work. G and N are gauge-cocks, by 
which the height of water in the boilers is determined ; 
they were first adopted by Savery. 

" Here we find, therefore, the first really practicable 
and commercially valuable steam-engine. Thomas 
Savery is entitled to the credit of having been the first 
to introduce a machine in which the power of heat, 
acting through the medium of steam, was rendered 
generally useful. It will be noticed that Savery, like 
the Marquis of Worcester, used a boiler separate from 
the water- reservoir. He added to the * water-com- 
manding engine ' of the marquis the system of sur- 
face-condensation, by which he was enabled to charge 
his vessels when it became necessary to refill them ; 
and added, also, the secondary boiler, which enabled 
him to supply the working-boiler with water without 
interrupting its action. The machine was thus made 
capable of working uninterruptedly for a period of 
time only Hmited by its own decay. Savery never 
fitted his boilers with safety-valves, although it was done 
later by others j and in deep mines he was compelled 
to make use of higher pressures than his rudely- 
constructed boilers could safely bear." ^ 

In this case, we find an illustration of a very com- 
mon fact in the history of inventions : The originator 
of this machine was probably, perhaps undoubtedly, 

1 Thurston's History of the Steam-Engine, p. 38. See, also, 
Thurston's Manual of Steara-Boilers. New York. J. Wiley 
& Sons. 



T4 ROBERT FULTON. 

the second Marquis of Worcester ; but the practical 
constructor^ and the finally successful inventor, was 
Savery, the man who combined inventive with con- 
structive power and business ability in that way which 
is almost always essential to complete success. Savery 
was more an " exploiter " of this invention than its 
author. Yet he did introduce some excellent modifi- 
cations of details, and the various practically useftil 
minutiae which so often are the prime requisite to 
commercially satisfactory work. A glance at the draw- 
ings of the machine, however, and a comparison with 
the modern steam-engine will show that this was not 
only not a steam-engine in the usual sense, a train of 
mechanism, but that it belongs to an entirely different 
class of apparatus. A real steam-engine was only in- 
vented after experience with the Savery apparatus had 
shown it to be a wasteful, dangerous, and compara- 
tively rude contrivance for the application of steam to 
the work of raising water. It was w^asteful in conse- 
quence of the fact that it applied the pressure of the 
steam at tne surface of the cold water to be raised, 
and was thus certain to condense much more than it 
could usefully employ ; it was dangerous in conse- 
quence of the fact that it must necessarily use pres- 
sures exceeding those of^ head of water to be 
encountered, and higher than the mechanics of 
that time could make their boilers and "forcing- 
vessels " capable of safely withstanding. More than 
one explosion actually occurred. 

It is here that we meet with perhaps the greatest 
of all the inventors of the steam-engine, — the man who 



STEAM IN EARLIER TIMES. 15 

for the first time produced a steam-engine of the 
modem type j a train of mechanism, in which a steam- 
engine was constructed and applied to another ma- 
chine for the purpose of acting as its " prime mov^er," 
— an engine operating a pump. This greatest of the 
whole line of inventors, considered from the point of 
view of the historian of the engine and the student of 
its philosophy, was, not Watt, but Newcomen, or per- 
haps more precisely, two mechanics, Thomas New- 
comen and John Galley or Cawley, who patented the 
new engine, 1705, soon after Savery's machine had 
come to be fairly well known. Savery also controlled 
some of the patents incorporated in the new arrange- 
ment, and took an interest with its inventors, and 
shared their profits. 

Newcomen's engine, by employing steam of low, 
hardly more than atmospheric, pressure, evaded the 
dangers inherent in that of Savery, and by applying 
the steam to move a piston in a cylinder apart from 
the pump, secured comparatively economical perform- 
ance. It promptly displaced the older and ruder 
contrivance, and came into use all over Europe, as 
constructed later by Smeaton and other great engi- 
neers of the day. As finally given form by these able 
men, it isiseen in the next engraving, which* shows the 
machine as built by Smeaton in 1774, for the Long 
Benton colhery.^ The boiler is not shown in the 
sketch. Figure 3 illustrates its characteristic features.^ 

1 History of the Steam-Engine, p. 65. 

2 A fac-simile of a sketch in Galloway's " On the Steam- 
Engine," etc. 



i6 



ROBERT FULTON. 



The steam is led to the engine through the pipe, C, 
and is regulated by turning the cock in the receiver, 
D, which connects with the steam- cylinder by the 
pipe, E, which latter pipe rises a little way above the 




\ 







' i ) i S 



ly^^!^; ^1 





Fig. 3. — Smeaton's Newcomen Engine. 

bottom of the cylinder, i% in order that it may not 
drain off the injection- water into the steam- pipe and 
receiver. 

The steam-cylinder, about 10 ft. (3 m.) in length, 
is fitted with a carefully-made piston, G, having 



STEAM IN EARLIER TIMES, 1 7 

a flanch rising 4 or 5 inches (.1 to r.25 m.) and 
extending completely around its circumference, and 
nearly in contact with the interior surface of the 
cylinder. Between this flanch and the cylinder is 
driven a *^ packing " of oakum, which is held in place 
by weights \ this prevents the leakage of air, water, or 
steam past the piston, as it rises and falls in the 
cylinder at each stroke of the engine. The chain 
and piston-rod connect the piston to the beam //. 
The arch-heads at each end of the beam keep the 
chains of the piston-rod and the pump-rods perpen- 
dicular and in line. 

A "jack-head" pump, N^ is driven by a small 
beam deriving its motion from the plug-rod at g^ 
raises the water required for condensing the steam, 
and keeps the cistern, (9, suppHed. This "jack- 
head " cistern is sufficiently elevated to give the 
water entering the cylinder the velocity requisite to 
secure prompt condensation, K waste-pipe carries 
away any surplus water. The injection- water is led 
from the cistern by the pipe, P P, which is two or 
three inches in diameter; and the flow of water is 
regulated by the injection-cock, r. The cap at the 
end, d, is pierced with several holes, and the stream 
thus divided rises in jets when admitted, and, striking 
the lower side of the piston, the spray thus produced 
very rapidly condenses the steam, and produces a 
vacuum beneath the piston. The valve, e, on the 
upper end of the injection-pipe, is a check-valve to 
prevent leakage into the engine when the latter is not 
in operation. The little pipe, /, supplies water to the 

2 



i8 . ROBERT FULTOJV. 

Upper side of the piston, and, keeping it flooded, pre- 
vents the entrance of air when the packing is not 
perfectly tight. 

The " working-plug," or plug-rod, Q^ is a piece of 
timber slit vertically, and carrying pins which engage 
the handles of the valves, opening and closing them 
at the proper times. The steam-cock, or regulator, 
has a handle, h, by which it is moved. The iron rod, 
/ /, or spanner, gives motion to the handle, h. 

The vibrating lever, k /, called the Y or the " tum- 
bling bob," moves on the pins, in n, and is worked by 
the levers, op, which in turn are moved by the plug- 
tree. When o is depressed, the loaded end, k, is 
given the position seen in the sketch, and the leg, / 
of the Y strikes the spanner, / /, and, opening the 
steam-valve, the piston at once rises as steam enters 
the cylinder, until another pin on the plug-rod raises 
the piece, P, and closes the regulator again. The 
lever, q r, connects with the injection-cock, and is 
moved, when, as the piston rises, the end, q, is struck 
by a pin on the plug-rod, and the cock is opened and 
a vacuum produced. The cock is closed on the 
descent of the plug-tree with the piston. An educ- 
tion-pipe, R, fitted with a clock, conveys away the 
water in the cylinder at the end of each down-stroke ; 
the water thus removed is collected in the hot-well, 
S, and is used as feed-water for the boiler, to which 
it is conveyed by the pipe T. At each down-stroke, 
while the water passes out through R, the air which 
may have collected in the cylinder is driven out 
through the " snifting-valve," s. The steam-cylmder 



STEAM IN EARLIER TIMES. 19 

is supported on strong beams, / // it has around its 
upper edge a guard, v, of lead, which prevents the 
overflow of the water on the top of the piston. The 
excess of this water flows away to the hot-well 
through the pipe W. 

Catch-pins, x, are provided, to prevent the beam 
descending too far should the engine make too long 
a stroke ; two wooden springs, y y, receive the blow. 
The great beam is carried on sectors, z z^ to diminish 
losses by friction. 

Comparing this machine wi^ that of Savery, it is 
seen that the dangers of the form previously in use 
are here evaded, while economy is enormously pro- 
moted by the change. As it is here practicable to 
employ steam of but slightly more than atmospheric 
pressure, no danger of explosions consequent upon 
high pressure in regular working is encountered. By 
the separation of the pump from the working cylin- 
der, and the application of the steam to a piston, 
instead of to a surface of cold water, the immense 
condensation to which it was subjected in the Savery 
engine is largely reduced. Thus both safety and 
economy are gained. It is therefore not at all sur- 
prising that this new invention should have come 
immediately into general use, and should have 
promptly become the standard form of the steam- 
engine for its time. It was built not only for all the 
principal mines of Great Britain, but also for those of 
the cotitinent of Europe ; and long after the death 
of its inventors the genius of that greatest of en- 
gineers of his time, Smeaton, continued to sustain it 



20 ROBERT FULTON. 

and to keep it in use, even as a rival of the most 
famous of this whole Ime of inventions, — that of 
James Watt, who now comes upon the scene. Smea- 
ton himself built a large number of these engines; 
and at the time of his death, about the end of the 
eighteenth century, there were not less than a hun- 
dred Newcomen engines in Great Britain, and many 
elsewhere in Europe. 

Notwithstanding the great advantage possessed 
by this engine when compared with that of Savery, 
it was, compared with our modern standards, a 
very wasteful machine. Its wastes occurred through 
the same causes precisely as those operating in the 
case of its predecessor, and though in less degree, 
still to a very serious extent. In the operation of 
the pump-end it had become efficient ; but the 
steam-cylinder was both a power-producing mech- 
anism and a condenser of steam, — for the condensa- 
tion of the one working- charge was produced by the 
introduction of water, cooling the cylinder itself, as 
well as the steam which it contained. This cooling 
compelled a subsequent heating by the next charge 
of steam, and consequent condensation and waste 
proportional to the quantity thus demanded, — a very 
large fraction of all entering the engine. Its "duty" 
was about six millions of pounds of water raised one 
foot high by a bushel of coals, — the usual measure 
of efficiency of engines in those days. This was but 
about a quarter of that obtained a little later by Watt, 
and but a tenth of that secured ultimately by his 
best engines. It was about five per cent of what is 



JAMES WATT. 2i 

to-day considered the maximum duty of the modern 
engine of the best type. 

It is to James Watt that we owe the latest and 
crowning improvements of the steam-engine, as we 
know it to-day. A half-century after Newcomen he 
found among the collections of the then and still 
celebrated University of Glasgow — always famous 
for its success in the promotion of the physical sci- 
ences — a model of the still-used engine of that ear- 
lier and no less deserving inventor. He was, in the 
course of his duty as the instrument-maker to the 
college, called upon to put this little machine in re- 
pair ; and having done so, he became interested in 
studying its working. He was surprised to find that 
its steam- cylinder absorbed, each stroke, four times 
as much steam as its measurement would indicate to 
be possible, three fourths of that entering being evi- 
dently condensed, and only one fourth doing work. 
This waste of seventy-five per cent of all the steam 
supplied, and of a similar proportion of the fuel used 
in generating it, and of the money demanded for the 
operation of the engine, seemed so extraordinary 
that the active mind of the great inventor was at once 
applied to remedy so singular and immense a loss. 

Watt saw at once that the remedy must consist in 
some way of reducing this liquefaction of the steam 
by, as he said, " keeping the steam-cylinder as hot as 
the steam entering it." This he did by first effecting 
the condensation of the steam in a separate con- 
denser, instead of in the cylinder ; then surrounding 
the cylinder itself by a " steam-jacket," in which he 



22 ROBERT FULTOiY. 

kept steam at boiler-pressure, thus preventing any 
cooling off of the engine during the period of its 
operation. In his patent of 1769, he says, — 

" My method of lessening the consumption of 
steam, and consequently fuel, in fire-engines, consists 
in the following principles : — 

" I St. That the vessel in which the powers of 
steam are to be employed to work the engine — 
which is called ' the cylinder ' in common fire-engines, 
and which I call '■ the steam-vessel ' — must, during 
the whole time that the engine is at work, be kept as 
hot as the steam which enters it : first, by inclosing it 
in a case of wood, or any other materials that trans- 
mit heat slowly; secondly, by surrounding it with 
steam or other heated bodies ; and thirdly, by suffer- 
ing neither water nor other substances colder than 
the steam to enter or touch it during that time. 

" 2dly. In engines that are to be worked, wholly 
or partially, by condensation of steam, the steam is 
to be condensed in vessels distinct from the steam- 
vessel or cylinder, though occasionally communi- 
cating with them. These vessels I call condensers ; 
and while the engines are working, these condensers 
ought at least to be kept as cold as the air in the 
neighbourhood of the engines, by application of water 
or other cold bodies. 

" Sdly. Whatever air or other elastic vapour is not 
condensed by the cold of the condenser, and may im- 
pede the working of the engine, is to be drawn out of 
the steam-vessels or condensers by means of pumps, 
wrought by the engines themselves, or otherwise. 



JAMES WATT. 23 

"4thly. I intend in many cases to employ the 
expansive force of steam to press on the pistons, or 
whatever may be used instead of them, in the same 
manner as the pressure of the atmosphere is now 
employed in common fire-engines. In cases where 
cold water cannot be had in plenty, the engines may 
be wrought by this force of steam only, by discharging 
the steam into the open air after it has done its 
office." 

Thus he converted the " atmospheric engine " of 
Newcomen into the steam-engine of James Watt. 
His separate condenser, with its air-pump ; his cov- 
ered cylinder, permitting the contact of hot steam 
instead of cold air with the top of the piston; his 
steam-jacket, and his generally improved construction, 
at once gave him a machine which was capable of 
doing four times as much work, on the same expen- 
diture of money for fuel, as the older engine. A 
capitalist, Matthew Boulton, joined with Watt in the 
formation of a company for the manufacture of the 
new engine ; and the firm of Boulton and Watt became 
promptly known all over the civilized world, and is 
likely to be remembered as long as the steam-engine 
endures. This partnership was formed in 1769, and 
from that time on, for years. Watt found employment 
for all his genius in the improvement and adaptation 
of the engine for its countless purposes. 

In 1 78 1 Watt invented the now familiar "double- 
acting " engine, applied to turning a shaft, and to the 
driving of machinery in factories and mills. His 
patent included, — 

(i) The expansion of steam, and six methods of 



24 ROBERT FULTON. 

applpng the principle and of equalizing the expansive 
power. 

(2) The double-acting steam-engine, in which the 
steam acts on each side the piston alternately, the 
opposite side being in communication with the con- 
denser. 

(3) The double or coupled steam-engine, — two 
engines capable of working together, or indepen- 
dently, as may be desired. 

(4) The use of a rack on the piston-rod, working 
into a sector on the end of the beam, thus securing 
a perfect rectilinear motion of the rod. 

{5) A rotary engine, or " steam-wheel." 
The efficiency to be secured by the expansion of 
steam had long been known to Watt, and he had 
conceived the idea of economizing some of that 
power, the waste of which was so plainly indicated 
by the violent rushing of the exhaust-steam into the 
condenser, as early as 1 769. This was described in 
a letter to Dr. Small, of Birmingham, in May of that 
year ; and the earlier Soho engines were, as Watt said, 
made with cylinders " double the size wanted, and 
cut off the steam at half- stroke." But though " this 
was a great saving of steam, so long as the valves 
remained as at first," the builders were so constantly 
annoyed by alterations of the valves by proprietors 
and their engineers that they finally gave up that 
method of working, hoping ultimately to be able to 
resume it when workmen of greater intelligence and 
reliability could be found. The patent was issued 
July 17, 1782.1 

* History of the Steam-Engine, p. 105. 



JAMES WATT. 25 

During the following two years or more, Watt was 
engaged in bringing out and perfecting a number of 
the minor inventions, the accessories of the engine, — as 
the governor, the counter, the numerous little details of 
construction and of valve mechanism ; finally, in 1784, 
he patented a group which included these, and the 
steam-hammer, and the locomotive. The steam- 
engine had now taken its distinctively modern form, 
and may be said to have been substantially com- 
pleted ; and Watt's work was mainly done. The 
form of the engine as now built by the firm is seen 
in the next engraving, which is a reproduction of his 
own drawings made at that date. 

In Figure 4, C is the steam-cylinder, P the piston, 
connected to the beam by the link, g, and guided by 
the parallel motion ^^<r. At the opposite end of the 
beam a connecting-rod, O, connects with the crank 
and fly-wheel shaft. R is the rod of the air-pump, by 
means of which the condenser is kept from being 
flooded by the water used for condensation, which 
water-supply is regulated by an " injection-handle," 
E. A pump-rod, N, leads down from the beam to 
the cold-water pump, by which water is raised from the 
well or other source to supply the needed injection- 
water. The air-pump rod also serves as a '^ plug- rod," 
to work the valves, the pins at m and R striking the 
lever, ni, at either end of the stroke. When the pis- 
ton reaches the top of the cylinder, the lever, m, is 
raised, opening the steam- valve, B, at the top, and the 
exhaust-valve, E, at the bottom, and at the same time 
closing the exhaust at the top and the steam at the 



26 



ROBERT FULTON. 



bottom. When the entrance of steam at the top and 
the removal of steam-pressure below the piston has 
driven the piston to the bottom, the pin, R, strikes the 
lever, m, opening the steam and closing the exhaust 
valve at the bottom, and similarly reversing the position 
of the valves at the top. The position of the valves 
is changed in this manner with every reversal of the 
motion of the piston. 




Fig. 4. — Boulton and Watt's Double-Acting Engine^ 17S4. 

The earliest engines of the kind, and of any con- 
siderable size, were those set up in the Albion Mills, 
near Blackfriars' Bridge, London, in 1786, and de- 
stroyed when the mills burned in 1791. These were 
a pair of engines, of fifty horse-power each, and geared 
to drive twenty pairs of stones, making fiine flour and 
meal. Previous to the erection of this mill the power 
in all such establishments had always been derived 
from wind-mills and water-wheels. 



JAMES WATT. 27 

At the time of Watt's death, 18 19, the steam-engine 
had thus been brought into its now famiUar and stan- 
dard form, and had been prepared, by its various 
modifications of detail, to do its work in all now usual 
directions. The engine itself was substantially com- 
plete in form. It had been given such construction as 
would permit the expansive use of the motor-fluid, 
and thus the attainment of high economy ; the wastes 
had been reduced to a comparatively small amount ; 
and the applications of the machine to the raising of 
water, the driving of mills, the impulsion of railway- 
carriages, and of vessels, had been proposed and, 
tentatively, begun in all directions. It was now 
possible to begin a new line of engineering develop- 
ment, — that of application to all the purposes of 
modern life. It is this which has been the distinctive 
industrial characteristic of the nineteenth century. As 
we have seen, Watt may not claim the honour of being 
the inventor of the steam-engine ; but he is unques- 
tionably entitled to that of having been the most fruit- 
ful of inventors, and the man to whom most credit is 
due for having applied the machine to its myriad 
purposes, making it the universal servant and friend 
of mankind. It is this which entitles him to the 
famous eulogy in his epitaph, as the inventor who, 
" directing the force of an original genius, early exer- 
cised in philosophic research, to the improvement of 
the steam-engine, enlarged the resources of his coun- 
try, increased the power of man, and rose to an illus- 
trious place among the most eminent followers of 
science, and the real benefactors of the world." 



28 ROBERT FULTON. 



II. 

EARLY EXPERIMENTS IN STEAM-NAVIGATION. 

Even before the time of Watt, the possibility of 
the appUcation of the motive power of steam to the 
impulsion of vessels had been, by many inventors, 
believed to be unquestionable ; and a number of 
attempts to so apply it had been made. But so rude 
were the machines of those earlier times, and so im- 
possible was it to secure good construction of even 
the simplest mechanism., that no permanent success 
had been achieved by any one of these enthusiastic 
schemers. As early as the thirteenth century, Roger 
Bacon, one of the founders of the modern system of 
experimental philosophy, wrote, " I will now mention 
some wonderful works of art and nature in which 
there is nothing of magic, and which magic could not 
perform. Instruments may be made by which the 
largest ships, with only one man guiding them, will be 
carried with greater velocity, than if they were full of 
sailors." ^ 

As soon as the steam-engine took practically avail- 
able form, it was proposed to use it for this purpose ; 
and Papin, in 1690, suggested the use of his piston- 
engine in this direction. He actually constructed a 

1 History of the Steam-Engine, p. 224. 



EARLY EXPERIMENTS. 29 

Steamboat, in 1707, on the river Fulda, at Cassell, 
using his pumping- engine to raise water ; which water 
in turn was apphed to a water-wheel, and drove thus 
a set of paddle-wheels on the same shaft. The con- 
trivance, crude as it was, was found capable of doing 
its work, and the boat might have been the pioneer 
in a commercially successful use of steam for naviga- 
tion, had it not been promptly destroyed by the igno- 
rant and superstitious boatmen of the neighbourhood, 
who thought it the work of the Evil One. Papin, dis- 
appointed and discouraged, fled to England, and there, 
becoming well known as a fellow of the Royal Society, 
resided until his death, in poverty, about 1712. 

A little later, 1736, Jonathan Hulls, of whom noth- 
ing seems to be otherwise known, patented a steam- 
boat, of which he gave a very imperfect description, 
but which he is said to have constructed and success- 
fully tried, and an account of which he published in 
pamphlet form in 1737. Its frontispiece is a rude 
illustration of the proposed boat, and also gives some 
slight idea of the nature of the details of his machin- 
ery, which seems to have included some modification 
of the Newcomen engine. This has been reproduced 
in fac-simile in later works. 1 

Bernouilli, in 1752, proposed the use of a screw as 
a propelling instrument. L'Abbe Gauthier, according 
to Figuier,^ about the same time suggested the use of 
the steam-engine in navigation, driving paddle-wheels, 
and also that it should be used for operating the 
pumps, for raising the anchor, and ventilating the ves- 

1 History of the Steam-Engine, p. 226. 

2 Les Merveilles de la Science. 



30 ROBERT FULTON. 

sel, and that the fire should, at the same time, be used 
for cooking. He designed to use the Newcomen 
engine. 

Many other inventors were now studying the prob- 
lem in different parts of the civilized world. Among 
these, none were as ingenious or as persistent or as 
successful as those of the then British colonies, later 
the United States of America. Among these was a 
group of New York and Pennsylvania mechanics, 
who, seemingly each more or less familiar with the 
work of the others, struggled on persistently, and 
finally successfully. A nucleus consisting of one 
of these men and his friends and coadjutors, be- 
came, ere long, the germ of the great movement 
which in the early part of the nineteenth century 
resulted in the final application of the powers of 
steam to the propulsion of steam- vessels, — first on the 
rivers of the United States and the harbours of Great 
Britain, then on all the oceans. The originator of 
this sudden movement in the United States seems 
to have been a man unknown to fame, and one of 
whom few records are preserved. Our own informa- 
tion, hitherto unpublished, comes from an indistinctly 
traced source ; but its facts have been fairly well veri- 
fied by independent historical investigation., 

William Henry was born in Chester County, Penn., 
in the year 1729. His father, John Henry, with his 
parents, and two brothers, — Robert and James, — 
emigrated to this country from the north of Ireland 
in or about the year 1719 or 1720.^ The father of 

1 Robert and James Henry married sisters, named Mary 
Ann and Sarah Davis, who resided in Chester County. Rob- 



EARLY EXPERIMENTS. 3 1 

James, Robert, and John was a native of Scotland, 
but for a short time previous to his coming to this 
country had resided in one of the northern counties of 
Ireland. Upon the arrival of the family in Pennsyl- 
vania they settled in Chester County, where, as before 
stated, the subject of our sketch was born. At an 
early age he became a resident of Lancaster, Penn., 
where he learned the business of gunsmith. After 
serving his apprenticeship he began business on 
his own account, and in a few years became the 
principal gunsmith in the province. During the In- 
dian wars which desolated Pennsylvania from 1755 
to 1760, he was appointed principal armourer of the 
troops then called into service, which jwsition pro- 
cured for him the honour of having his name given to 
a fort in Berks County constructed by the Proprietary 
Government, on the then frontier settlements, under 
the immediate supervision of Benjamin Franklin, to 
whom Mr. Henry was well known, and who appre- 
ciated his services in that eventful period. 

In the year 1760 Mr. Henry went to England 
on business connected with his vocation, and there 
he remained for some time. Having a mechanical 
turn of mind, the inventions and the applications of 
steam by Watt being then much discussed, the idea 
of its application to the propelling of boats, vehicles, 
etc., so engrossed his mind that on his return to his 

ert subsequently removed to Virginia ; and from the circum- 
stances of the two brothers having married the sisters, Mary 
Ann and Sarah Davis, it has been ascertained that the cele- 
brated Patrick Henry was a descendant of this Robert Henry. 



32 ROBERT FULTON. 

home in Lancaster he began the construction of a 
machine, the motive power of which was steam. 
In 1763 Mr. Henry completed the machine, which 
was attached to a boat with paddles, and with it he 
experimented on the Canastoga River, near Lan- 
caster ; but the boat was by some accident sunk.^ 

This was the first attempt that ever had been made 
to apply steam to the propelling of boats. Notwith- 
standing the ill luck that attended the first attempt in 
an undertaking of the practicability of which he had 
not the least doubt, he constructed a second model, 
with improvements on the first ; and among the 
records of the Pennsylvania Philosophical Society 
is to be found a design, presented by him in 1782, 
of a machine, the motive power of which was steam. 
An intelligent German traveller named Shoepff, who 
travelled through the United States in 1 783-1 784, 
whilst staying for a time at Lancaster, became ac- 
quainted with Mr. Henry. He says : " I was shown 
a machine by Mr. Henry, intended for the propelling 
of boats, etc., ' but,' said Mr. Henry, ' I am doubtful 
whether 'such a machine would find favour with the 
public, as every one considers it impracticable to 
make a boat move against wind and tide ; ' but that 
such a boat will come into use, and navigate on the 
waters of the Ohio and Mississippi he had not the 
least doubt, though the time had not yet arrived of 
its being appreciated and applied." A sketch of 
the machine, with the boilers, etc., made by Mr. 

1 See Bowen's " Sketches," collected in Pennsylvania. 



EARLY EXPERIMENTS. ZZ 

Henry in 1779, is said to be still in the possession 
of his heirs. 

John Fitch (for whom his biographer claimed the 
honour of the invention of the application of steam 
to the propulsion of boats) was a frequent visitor at 
Mr. Henry's house, and according to the belief of his 
friends obtained from him the idea of the steamboat. 
Fulton, then a young lad, also visited Mr. Henry's to 
examine the paintings of Benjamin West; and the 
germ that subsequently ripened into the construction 
of the " Folly " was possibly due to those visits. 
Mr. Henry's decease occurred on the 15th of De- 
cember, 1786. 

„ William Henry, though unsuccessful with the ex- 
periments with his first boat on the Canastoga River, 
thus very probably originated the idea of the steam- 
boat at least five years before Fulton was born. 
The following extract ^ may throw some light on the 
subject : — 

"Dec. 2d, 1785. At a special meeting of the 
Philosophical Society, John Fitch was personally pre- 
sented to the members. Desirous of having the 
opinion of men of weight at that period, he con- 
sulted several, among whom was Mr. Henry, of Lan- 
caster, ' who informed me,' says Fitch, ' that he was 
the first person who had thought of applying steam 
to vessels; that he had conversed with Mr. Paine, 
author of "Common Sense," and some time after, 
Mr. Henry, thinking more seriously of the matter, 

* Inventor's Guide, by J. G. Moore. 
3 



34 ROBERT FULTON. 

was of the opinion that it might be perfected, and 

accordingly made some drafts, which he laid before 

the Philosophical Society.' " 

/ Fitch evidently made the first successful experi- 

( ment in the propelling of boats by steam ; but Wil- 

" *liam Henry has probably the honour of originating 

the idea, and building the first steamboat ever built 

in the United States. Fitch improved on Mr. Henry's 

model, and Fulton improved on both. 

Thus a group of alert, intelligent, enterprising men, 
in this little town, far back among the then wilds of 
Pennsvlvania, were all interested in the solution of a 
new problem. Of all these men, two — Fitch and 
Fulton — have since been known as the most suc- 
cessful among the inventors who took part in the 
introduction of steam navigation in the United States. 
At the same time the great mechanics of the country 
were preparing themselves to take their part in the 
work, and in 1775 the first steam-cyHnder for a sta- 
tionary steam-engine was cast in New York City, by 
the firm of Sharpe & Curtenius ; ^ while the applica- 
tion of the steam-engine to navigation was attempted 
in a rude way, since often tried and as often failing, 
by James Rumsey. 

Rumsey's experiments began in 1774, and in 1786 
he succeeded in driving a boat at the rate of four 
miles an hour against the current of the Potomac at 
Shepherdstown, Va., in presence of General Wash- 
ington. His method of propulsion has often been 
reinvented since, and its adoption urged with that 
1 Rivington's Gazette, Feb. 16, 1775. 



EARLY EXPERIMENTS. 35 

enthusiasm and persistence which is a pecuHar char- 
acteristic of inventors. 

Rumsey employed his engine to drive a great 
pump, which forced a stream of water aft, thus pro- 
pelhng the boat forward, as proposed earUer by 
BernouiUi. 

Rumsey died of apoplexy while explaining some 
of his schemes before a London society a short time 
later, December 23, 1793, at the age of fifty years, 
A boat then in process of construction from his plans 
was afterward tried on the Thames, in 1793, and 
steamed at the rate of four miles an hour. The 
State of Kentucky in 1839 presented his son with a 
gold medal, commemorative of his father's services 
" in giving to the world the benefit of the steam- 
boat." i The first President of the United States 
certified his familiarity with this device, thus : — 

I have seen the model of Mr. Rumsey's boat, 
constructed to work against the stream ; examined 
the powers upon which it acts ; been eye-witness to 
an actual experiment in running waters of some ra- 
pidity; and give it as my opinion (although I had 
little faith before) that he has discovered the art of 
working boats by mechanism and small manual as- 
sistance against rapid currents ; that the discovery is 
of vast importance ; may be of greatest usefulness in 
our inland navigation ; and, if it succeeds, of which 
I have no doubt, the value of it is greatly enhanced 
by the simplicity of the work, which, when explained, 
may be executed by the most common mechanic. 

* History of the Steam-Engine, p. 236. 



36 ROBERT FULTON. 

Given under my hand and seal, in the town of Bath, 
county of Berkeley, in the State of Virginia, this 7th 

day of Sept., 1784. 

George Washington. 

John Fitch was an ingenious Connecticut me- 
chanic. In April, 1785, as Fitch himself states, at 
Neshamony, Bucks County, Pa., he conceived the 
idea that a carriage might be driven by steam. After 
considering the subject a few days, his attention was 
led to the plan of using steam to propel vessels, and 
from that time to the day of his death he was a per- 
sistent advocate of the introduction of the steamboat.- 
At this time, Fitch says, " I did not know that there 
was a steam-engine on the earth ; " and he was 
somewhat disappointed when his friend, the Rev. Mr. 
Irwin, of Neshamony, showed him a sketch of one 
in " Martin's Philosophy." 

Fitch's first model was at once built, and was soon 
after tried on a small stream near Davisville. The 
machinery was made of brass, and the boat was 
mipelled by paddle-wheels. His own account of 
his invention is as follows : — 

Philadelphia, December 8, 1786 
To tke Editor of the Columbian Magazine. 

Sir, — The reason of my so long deferring to give 
you a description of the steam-boat has been in some 
measure owing to the complication of the works, and 
an apprehension that a number of drafts would be 
necessary in order to show the powers of the machine 
as clearly as you would wish. But as I have not been 



EARLY EXPERIMENTS. 37 

able to hand you herewith such drafts, I can only give 
you the general principles. It is in several parts sim- 
ilar to the late improved steam-engines in Europe, 
though there are some alterations. Our cylinder is to 
be horizontal, and the steam to work with equal force 
at each end. The mode by which we obtain what I 
take the liberty of terming a vacimm is, we believe, 
entirely new, as is also the method of letting the water 
into it, and throwing it off against the atmosphere 
without any friction. It is expected that the engine, 
which is a twelve-inch cylinder, will move with a clear 
force of eleven or twelve hundred weight after the 
frictions are deducted ; this force is to act against a 
wheel of eighteen inches diameter. The piston is to 
move about three feet, and each vibration of the pis- 
ton gives the axis about forty evolutions. Each ev- 
olution of the axis moves twelve oars or paddles, five 
and a half feet, which work perpendicularly, and are 
represented by the stroke of the paddle of a canoe. 
As six of the paddles are raised from the water six 
more are entered, and the two sets of paddles make 
their strokes about eleven feet in each evolution. The 
cranks of the axis act upon the paddles about one- 
third of their length from the lever-end, on which part 
of the oar the whole force of the axis is applied. Our 
engine is placed in the boat, about one-third from the 
stern, and both the action and the re-action turn the 
wheel the same way. 

With the most perfect respect, sir, I beg leave to 
subscribe myself, 

Your very humble servant, John Fitch. 



38 ROBERT FULTON. 

Another of Fitch's boats, in April, 1790, made 
seven miles an hour. ' Fitch, writing of this boat, says 
that " on the i6th of April we got our work completed, 
and tried our boat again; and, although the wind 
blew very fresh at the east, we reigned lord high ad- 
mirals of the Delaware, and no boat on the river could 
hold way with us." In June of that year it was placed 
as a passenger-boat on a line from Philadelphia to 
Burlington, Bristol, Bordentown, and Trenton, oc- 
casionally leaving that route to take excursions to 
Wilmington and Chester. During this period, the 
boat probably ran between two thousand and three 
thousand miles, and with no serious accident. Dur- 
ing the winter of 1 790-1 791, Fitch commenced 
another steamboat, the " Perseverance," and gave 
considerable time to the prosecution of his claim for 
a patent from the United States. The boat was never 
completed, although he received his patent, after a 
long and spirited contest with other claimants, on the 
26th of August, 1 79 1, and Fitch lost all hope of suc- 
cess. He went to France in 1 793, hoping to obtain 
the privilege of building steam- vessels there, but was 
again disappointed, and worked his passage home in 
the following year,^ and later brought out a new boat 
in New York City driven by a screw-propeller. It 
seems to have been customary to secure a witness in 
those days as in our own, and we have the following : 

This may certify that the subscriber has frequently 
seen Mr. Fitch's (John Fitch) steamboat, which with 

1 History of the Steam-Engine, p. 240. 



EARLY EXPERIMENTS. 



39 



great labour and perseverance he has at length com- 
pleted ; and has hkewise been on board when the 
boat was worked, against both wind and tide with 
considerable velocity, by the force of steam only. 
Mr. Fitch's merits in constructing a good steam- 
engine, and applying it to so useful a purpose, will no 




Fig. 



•John Fitch, 1788. 



doubt meet with the encouragement he so richly de- 
serves from the generosity of his countrymen, especi 
ally those who wish to promote every improvement of 
the useful arts in America. 

(Signed) . David Rittenhouse. 

Philadelphia, Dec. 12, 1787. 



Fitch finally retired to a farm, which he pre-empted 
from the public lands, in Kentucky, and there died 



40 ROBERT FULTON. 

in 1798, and was buried with a model of his steamboat 
beside him. 

Mr. Wm. A. Mowry thus states another historical 
fact : ^ " After Watt had invented the steam-engine, 
Captain Samuel Morey, of Orford, N. H., was fully per- 
suaded that the power of steam could be applied to 
propelling boats by the means of paddle-wheels. He 
therefore set himself to the task of inventing a boat 
to be thus propelled by steam. This he accompHshed. 
He made the boat, built the steam-engine, put in the 
necessary machinery, and with a single companion, 
if not entirely alone, made his first trial- trip with 
complete success, running from Orford, on the Con- 
necticut River, to Fairlee, Vt., and returning to Or- 
ford. This was as early as 1793, probably in 1792, 
although one writer says 1 790, — at least fourteen 
years before Fulton's trial-trip in the ^ Clermont ' up 
the Hudson, and nine years before his first trial- 
boat was constructed in France." 

Another interesting illustration of the frequently 
observed fact that a common thought often either sim- 
ultaneously comes to the minds of many men, or passes, 
like the electric current, from one to another, when 
circumstances and a favourable route of communica- 
tion permit, is seen in the entrance upon the scene at 
about this time of John Stevens, of New Jersey. It is 
said that, driving along the bank of the Delaware, he 
suddenly came in sight of the little steamboat of 
Fitch, which that inventor was just then running be- 
tween Bordentown and Philadelphia, and at once deter- 

1 Providence Journal, 1874. 



EARLY EXPERIMENTS. \\ 

mined that he could and would accomplish that, as yet, 
only partially completed task. Returned home, he at 
once set about the construction of engine and boat ; 
and after several years of intermittent labour brought, 
in 1804 and 1805, two forms of engine and boilers, 
and two boats, in which he adopted the screw as the 
propelling instrument, employed high-pressure steam- 
engines, and attained a speed which has been vari- 
ously reported as from four to eight miles an hour. 
He invented the "sectional" or ''safety" boiler, and 
when Watt was still using steam at a pressure not 
exceeding seven pounds per square inch, he regularly 
operated his engines at fifty and upward. The ma- 
chinery of his first boat is still preserved in excellent 
condition by his heirs. Later, 1807— 1809, he built 
larger and faster boats, and adopted in their con- 
struction the common paddle-wheel and appropriately 
constructed engines. 

Meantime the work was going on slowly but stead- 
ily on the other side the Atlantic, in the home and 
birthplace of the steam-engine. After the time of 
Hulls we meet with no authentic accounts of such 
inventions or experiments until about the time that 
Fitch began his work, when, in 1786 or 1787, Patrick 
Miller, of Dalswinton, built a boat in which he used 
manual power to turn paddle-wheels. A young stu- 
dent, tutor to his sons, then suggested the use of 
steam-power, and soon after published an account of 
his scheme (1787), asserting that he "had reason 
to believe " that the steam-engine might thus be 
made useful. Miller, Taylor, and a young mechanic, 



42 



ROBERT FULTON. 



William Symmington, the inventor of a new form of 
steam-engine, finally entered into an arrangement re- 
sulting in the construction, in 1788, of a boat (Fig- 
ure 6) only twenty-five feet long, of seven feet beam, 
and of rude form, which was reported to make five 
miles an hour. 




Fig. 6. — Miller, Taylor, and Symmington, i ; 



From what follows, this would seem to have been 

a vessel with a divided or "catamaran" form of 

hullii — 

DuMFERLiNE, 6th of June, 1789. 

Gentlemen, — The bearer, Mr. William Symington, 
is employed by me to erect a steam-engine for a 
double vessel, which he proposes to have made at 
Carron. I have therefore to beg that you will order 
the engine to be made according to his directions. 

A Preble on Steam Navigation, p. 20. 



EARLY EXPERIMENTS. 43 

As it is of importance that the experiment should be 
made soon, I beg also that you will assist him, by 
your orders to the proper workmen, in having it done 
expeditiously. I am, ever, with great regard, gentle- 
men, your most obedient, humble servant, 

Patrick Millar. 
To the Carron Company, Carron. 

In the following year, a larger and still more 
successful vessel was built, and a speed of seven 
miles an hour was attained. Nothing came of this 
success, however, and the partnership was dissolved. 
Later, Symmington went to Lord Dundas, who sup- 
plied him with capital, and in 1801 began the construc- 
tion of the " Charlotte Dundas," — a paddle-steamer 
driven by horizontal engines, and sufficiently powerful 
to serve as a towboat on the canals, and having a 
speed, running free, of five to seven miles an hour. 

In France, also, the application of steam to navi- 
gation was experimentally attempted at a still earlier 
date. In 1770, according to Figuier, the Comte 
d'Auxiron and his friend, the Chevalier Mounin, 
supported the inventor, the Marquis de Joufifroy, in 
his attempt to build a steam-vessel. According to 
our author,! — ■ 

^* D'Auxiron determined to attempt the realization 
of the plans which he had conceived. He resigned 
his position in the army, prepared his plans and 
drawings, and presented them to M. Bertin, the Prime 
Minister, in the year 1771 or 1772. The Minister 

1 History of the Steam-Engine, p. 232. 



44 ROBERT FULTON. 

was favourably impressed, and the King (May 22, 
1772) granted D'Auxiron a monopoly of the use of 
steam in river-navigation for fifteen years, provided 
he should prove his plans practicable, and they should 
be so adjudged by the Academy. 

" A company had been formed the day previous, 
consisting of D'Auxiron, Jouffroy, Comte de Dijon, 
the Marquis d'Yonne, and Follenai, which advanced 
the requisite funds. The first vessel was commenced 
in December, 1772. When nearly completed, in 
September, 1774, the boat sprung a leak, and one 
night foundered at the wharf. 

" After some angry discussion, during which D'Aux- 
iron was rudely, and probably unjustly, accused of bad 
faith, the company declined to advance the money 
needed to recover and complete the vessel. They 
were, however, compelled by the court to furnish it ; 
but meantime D'Auxiron died of apoplexy, the mat- 
ter dropped, and the company dissolved. The cost 
of the experiment had been something more than 
fifteen thousand francs. 

"The heirs of D'Auxiron turned the papers of the 
deceased inventor over to Jouffroy, and the King 
transferred to him the monopoly held by the former. 
Follenai retained all his interest in the project, and 
the two friends soon enlisted a powerful adherent and 
patron, the Marquis Ducrest, a well-known soldier, 
courtier, and member of the Academy, who took 
an active part in the prosecution of the scheme. M. 
Jacques P^rier, the then distinguished mechanic, was 
consulted, and prepared plans, which were adopted 



EARLY EXPERIMENTS. ^ 45 

in place of those of Jouffroy. The boat was built by 
Perier, and a trial took place in 1 7 74, on the Seine. 
The result was unsatisfactory. The little craft could 
hardly stem the sluggish current of the river, and the 
failure caused the immediate abandonment of the 
scheme by Perier. 

" Still undiscouraged, Jouffroy retired to his country 
home at Baume-les-Dames, on the river Doubs. 
There he carried on his experiments, getting his work 
done as best he could, with the rude tools and insuffi- 
cient apparatus of a village blacksmith. A Watt 
engine and a chain carrying " duck-foot " paddles 
were his propelling apparatus. The boat, which was 
about forty feet long and six wide, was started in 
June, 1776, The duck's-foot system of paddles 
proved unsatisfactory, and Jouffroy gave it up, and 
renewed his experiments with a new arrangement. 
He placed on the paddle-wheel shaft a ratchet-wheel, 
and on the piston-rod of his engine, which was placed 
horizontally in the boat, a double rack, into the upper 
and the lower parts of which the ratchet-wheel geared. 
Thus the wheels turned in the same direction, which- 
ever way the piston was moving. The new engine 
was built at Lyons, in 1780, by Messrs. Freres-Jean. 
The new boat was about one hundred and fifty feet 
long and sixteen wide ; the wheels were fourteen feet 
in diameter, their floats six feet long, and the "dip," 
or depth to which they reached, was about two feet. 
The boat drew three feet of water, and had a total 
weight of about one hundred and fifty tons. 

*' At a public trial of the vessel at Lyons, July 15, 



46 ROBERT FULTON. 

1783, the little steamer was so successful as to justify 
the publication of the fact by a report and a proc- 
lamation. The fact that the experiment was not 
made at Paris was made an excuse on the part of the 
Academy for withholding its indorsement, and on the 
part of the Government for dechning to confirm to 
Jouffroy the guaranteed monopoly. Impoverished 
and discouraged, Jouffroy gave up all hope of prose- 
cuting his plans successfully, and re-entered the army. 
Thus France lost an honour which was already within 
her grasp, as she had already lost that of the intro- 
duction of the steam-engine in the time of Papin." 

During the whole of the last quarter of the eigh- 
teenth century, invention was thus rife all over the then 
civilized world ; and by the end of that century suc- 
cess was in sight of a dozen inventors on either side 
the Atlantic. The attention of statesmen like Ste- 
vens, Livingston, and others had begun to be at- 
tracted to the importance of the new motor for this 
purpose ; and the great mechanics of every nation 
were seeking the best methods of construction and 
application of a marine engine. In the United States, 
Nicholas Roosevelt built a boat on the Passaic, in 
1 798, sixty feet long, and put into it an engine of 
twenty inches diameter of cylinder, driving the craft 
eight miles an hour on the occasion of a trial-trip on 
which a large party of invited guests were entertained. 
Livingston and Stevens had both employed Roosevelt 
in building engines for themselves, and their later 
activity in this direction was undoubtedly stimulated 
still further by his operations. It was at this date 



EARLY EXPERIMENTS. 47 

that Livingston obtained from the State of New York 
the exclusive right to the steam-navigation of the 
waters of that State, which, including as they did the 
Hudson River, gave him a most important monopoly, 
conditioned, however, upon his success in the produc- 
tion within a year of a steamboat that should have 
a speed of not less than four miles an hour. The 
act expired through this limitation; but in 1803 he 
secured its re-enactment, and by the aid of Robert 
Fulton, who now comes forward as the prominent 
figure, he became one of the great agents in the 
final and permanently successful introduction of the 
steamboat. 



48 ROBERT FULTON. 



CHAPTER III. 
ROBERT Fulton's early life. 

Robert Fulton, artist, engineer, mechanic, in- 
ventor, prophet, and statesman, was a genius of the 
first magnitude. His later fame is, as in so many- 
such cases, based rather upon what became most 
famiUar in his career than upon the real capacity 
and talent of the man. His achievements in the 
introduction of steam-navigation were by no means 
the best or highest measures of his genius. He was 
an inventor, and a great one ; but he did not invent 
the steamboat, or, so far as is known, any part of it. 
He was a talented artist, but his renown does not in 
the least rest on his fame on that score ; he was a 
civil engineer, and accomplished in that branch of the 
constructive profession, but the fact is to-day almost 
unknown even to members of his craft ; he was an 
eminent mechanic, but the " Clermont " — his first 
steamboat in America — did not illustrate his genius 
in that direction. 

The grand achievement of Fulton was the direction 
of an enterprise which resulted in the production by 
Watt and his partners in Great Britain, and by Brown 
in New York, of a steamboat that could give commer- 
cial returns in its actual daily operation, and the insti- 
tution of a " line " of boats between New York and 



ROBERT FULTON'S EARLY LIFE. 49 

Albany, the success of which insured the introduction 
and continued operation of steam-vessels, with all the 
marvellous consequences of that great event. He was 
a prophet, inasmuch as he foresaw the outcome of this 
grand revolution, in which he was so active a partici- 
pant and agent ; and he was a statesman, in that he 
weighed justly and fully the enormous consequences 
of the introduction of steam-navigation as an element 
of national greatness ; but he has been recognized 
neither as prophet nor as statesman, both of which 
he was, but as the inventor of the steamboat, — 
which he was not. 

Fulton was born at Little Britain, Lancaster County, 
Penn., in 1765. He was of Irish descent, his father 
having come from Kilkenny when quite a young man. 
The Fultons had, although living in the then wilder- 
ness, distinguished famihes for their neighbours. The 
family of Benjamin West lived in the adjacent county ; 
and the home of William Henry, close by, was a ren- 
dezvous for many interesting and stimulating ac- 
quaintances and a most enjoyable society. The Ful- 
ton farm, was sold to Mr. Swift in 1766, and the 
family removed to the city of Lancaster, in which 
place the father died in 1768, leaving his widow with 
five children to be cared for, and very little prop- 
erty with which to provide for them. 

Robert was sent to school in 1773, and acquired 
the rudiments of a good English education, having, 
however, learned to read, to write, and to "cipher" 
already at home. He was not a brilliant scholar, but 
made fair progress, though he was vastly more inter- 

4 



5© ROBERT FULTOJSr. 

ested, as are all bright boys of that age, in what was 
going on in the workshops of the mechanics with 
whom he was acquainted. On one occasion, his 
mother having suggested to his teacher that the boy 
was not giving as close attention to his books as was 
desirable, the honest pedagogue replied that he had 
done his best, but that Robert had asserted that "his 
head was so full of original ideas that there was no 
room for the storage of the contents of dusty books." 
The boy was then ten years old. 

Even at this early age he exhibited clearly the bent 
of his genius by the manufacture of his own lead- 
pencils, — hammering out the lead from bits of sheet 
metal that came in his way, and made pencils which 
were considered hardly inferior to any graphite pen- 
cils of that time. This was two hundred years after 
their invention; but the Fabers had been making 
graphite pencils a dozen years, and the Cont^ process, 
now standard, was only invented twenty years later. 
It may be very possible that Fulton made a good 
pencil for his time. In 1778, the citizens having 
been forbidden by the town council to illuminate in 
honour of Independence Day because of the scar- 
city of candles, Robert invented a sky-rocket, and, 
as he said, proposed to illuminate the heavens instead 
of the streets. When it was suggested to him by a 
friend that this was impossible, he replied, " No, sir ; 
there is nothing impossible." 

Fulton while still a child became an expert gun- 
smith, and supplied to the makers in his town draw- 
ings for the whole, — stock, locks, barrels, and all, and 



ROBER T FUL TON 'S EARL V LIFE, 5 1 

made computations of proportions and performance 
that were verified on the shooting-range. He was 
successful, both as designer of the main features of 
the gun and in his decorative work, and the makers 
were always glad to secure his sketches, and to profit 
by his computations. He designed an air-gun in 
1779, at the age of fourteen, but with what success 
is not known. 

It was at about this time that his first thought of 
new methods of boat-propulsion seem to have come 
to him. Finding the labour of " poling " a flat- 
bottomed boat, on the occasion of making a fishing 
excursion, somewhat arduous, he made a model of 
a boat to be impelled by paddle-wheels. In 1779, 
he tried his scheme on the same old fishing-boat 
which had so severely taxed his powers, and found 
it so satisfactory that he and his comrade used 
it a long time on their fishing excursions on the 
Conestoga, about Rockford, the residence of his 
comrade. 

The boy's childhood and youth included the pre- 
liminaries to the War of the Revolution and its final 
successful accomplishment, and the young engineer 
and artist was one of the most earnest of rebels, and 
an honest foe of the Tories, many of whom were 
settled in his neighbourhood, where were quartered, 
for a long time, a body of the Hessian troops sent 
over by the British government. These events nat- 
urally turned the thoughts of the young inventor to 
warlike devices and military and naval inventions; 
and his whole later career was, not improbably, influ- 



52 ROBERT FULTON. 

enced greatly, if not absolutely controlled, by the bent 
thus given his fertile brain and active mind. 

Meantime the genius of painting grew strong within 
him ; and the development of that natural talent had 
become so unusual and so promising that, at the age 
of seventeen, Fulton thought it wise to seek a wider 
field for the employment and application of his time 
and labour. He went to Philadelphia in 1782, and 
there remained four years, returning to Lancaster 
on his twenty-first birthday. He supported himself 
in the interval with his pencil, and proved himself 
capable of doing good work in making drawings of 
machinery, as well as in painting landscapes. He 
was not only able to care for himself, but was so 
successful that he brought back to his mother the 
means of purchase of a small farm in Washington 
County, Penn., where he settled his mother and her 
family, giving her a deed of the property. Mean- 
time, also, he had made the acquaintance of Benjamin 
Franklin, — then about to be sent to the Court of 
France, — and of other distinguished citizens of that 
metropoHs, and had thus, by a succession of happy 
accidents, laid the foundation of his later fortunes. 

But close confinement and intense application had 
enfeebled his strength, and his health began to fail, 
his lungs showing symptoms of such weakness that it 
was considered unsafe to neglect them, and his friends 
insisted upon his going abroad for travel, and in search 
of diversion, recreation, and health. His old friend, 
Benjamin West, had already settled in London, and 
had there become famous; and it was thought that 



ROBERT FULTON'S EARLY LIFE. 53 

he and other acquaintances of the promising young 
artist would be able to serve him in many ways, and 
help him secure advantageous positions and employ- 
ment. He first went for a time to the Warm Springs, 
Virginia, and passing safely through an illness involving 
the lungs in a state of serious inflammation, and a 
period in which incipient hemorrhages were among 
the more unpromising symptoms, he finally became 
well enough to undertake the voyage, and sailed for 
England some time in 1786. 

We have few authentic accounts of Fulton's life in 
the mother country. He spent some time in London 
with his friends, including Benjamin West, who received 
him most kindly, and continued an earnest and helpful 
friend during the remainder of his life. He was em- 
ployed mainly in painting, but did not lose his interest 
in mechanics and scientific pursuits. He became ac- 
quainted with the Duke of Bridgewater, and with Lord 
Stanhope, and this friendship led to many schemes for 
the promotion of the useful arts through the appli- 
cation of Fulton's and other's inventions. Fulton's 
own success was great; but this did not prevent his 
admiring, as an artist only could, the work of his 
master. West. He endeavoured to secure the whole 
series of West's paintings for the city of Philadel- 
phia, and entered into correspondence with his friends 
at home, with this object in view, and with the con- 
sent of the great painter, who was ready to dispose 
of the collection at what was regarded as a very 
moderate price, — much less than he received for his 
larger and most esteemed single paintings a little 



54 ROBERT FULTON. 

later. But Fulton was unable to raise the funds at 
home, and the opportunity was lost. 

Fulton went across the Channel and took up his 
residence in Paris in the year 1797, probably led to 
do so in the expectation that he might there find an 
opportunity to bring out some of the numerous inven- 
tions which were teeming in his uneasy brain. He 
was most hospitably received by the American minister, 
Mr. Barlow, and his wife ; and immediately upon the 
opening of their house and their estabhshment there, 
they invited Fulton to join them, greatly to his satis- 
faction. He accepted the kind proposal, and lived 
in their family seven years, practising his profession, 
as artist, learning the European languages, and study- 
ing the natural sciences, while at times endeavour- 
ing to find ways of putting into practical operation 
his schemes for improvement of various kinds of 
machinery. 

During the few years of his residence in England, 
Fulton's mind had been as active in the devising of 
new schemes and inventions as during his boyhood 
and youth at home. As early as 1793, according to 
Golden, his biographer, he had conceived the idea of 
applying the engine of Watt to the propulsion of steam- 
vessels, and his manuscripts of that time contain 
confident assertions of its practicability. He patented, 
in 1 794, a contrivance which he calls a " double in- 
clined plane " for use in transportation ; and while 
living in Birmingham, at that time or a little later, 
contrived various new machines and apparatus of en- 
gineering. The manuscripts containing accounts of 



ROBERT FULTON'S EARLY LIFE. 55 

these plans was lost, some years later, in 1804, when 
shipped from Paris to the United States ; the vessel 
in which they were sent was wrecked, and the papers 
were ruined by submersion before they could be res- 
cued. In the year 1794, also, which seems to have 
been a period of very great activity with him, he pa- 
tented a marble-sawing machine, for which he after- 
ward received the medal of the Society for the 
Promotion of the Arts, and the thanks of the society 
as well. His next invention seems to have been a 
machine for spinning flax ; another was a rope-making 
machine ; and still another a mechanical dredger or 
power-shovel, — the latter coming into use, and remain- 
ing for a long time a common machine in England. 

Fulton had by this time given up his portrait paint- 
ing, and thenceforward it was only the amusement 
of his hours of leisure or of relaxation from his 
labours as a civil engineer ; the formal announcement 
of which fact was made about 1795, ^^ which date 
he published a Treatise on Canal Navigation. He 
described a number of very ingenious devices in im- 
provement of the then common methods and ap- 
paratus of locks and other accessories of the canal. 
In making the illustrations, he illustrated as well 
his own skill in drawing, and his own power of de- 
signing details of his machinery. Copies of his work 
were sent to the governor of the State of Pennsylvania 
and to General Washington, whose reply expressed 
much interest in the subject, and confidence in the 
final adoption of some such system of general inter- 
communication in the United States. His letter to 



56 ROBERT FULTON. 

the governor of his native State, published in his book, 
exhibits a thoroughly statesmanlike quality of mind, 
and broad as well as liberal views. 

Fulton's visit to France was made largely with the 
hope of securing his patents on these canal improve- 
ments, and of introducing his inventions in that coun- 
try. He wrote one of his political essays in the form 
of a letter to Lord Stanhope, in 1798, in which he 
endeavoured to show the importance of public improve- 
ments, of domestic manufactures and trade, and of 
simple and light taxation. His idea was, as he said 
at the time, to secure the publication of these views, 
not only for the advantage of the people of Great 
Britain, but with the hope that they might precede 
him on his return to his own country, and enable him 
to effectively urge similar views upon the public men 
and legislators in America, and to develop a public 
sentiment in favour of what he considered essential and 
correct views of general economics. 

Fulton was unquestionably not only thinking much 
on the economical problems of his time, and of gene- 
ral statecraft, but he was as undeniably exhibiting 
the grasp of the statesman upon all such great ques- 
tions. He wrote a letter " to the Friends of Man- 
kind," especially addressed to the French legislature, 
in which he treated such topics with ingenuity, intelli- 
gence, and force. It was at a time when the whole 
world was agitated by the events which preceded the 
French Revolution, and when the French themselves 
were seeking, however blindly and mistakenly, with 
all earnestness and good intent, the way to better 



ROBERT FULTON'S EARLY LIFE. 57 

methods of government and of national life. They 
had already inaugurated that grand system of public 
education, of technical and trade- education, which in 
their hands, and, especially in later years, in those of 
the Germans, has grown so marvellously, and with 
such splendid results, during the intervening century, 
now just ending. Fulton reinforces the lesson already 
learned, and insists upon the essential necessity of 
such general and practical education, of promoting 
interior improvements, and all those vital works upon 
which the prosperity of a country depends so directly. 
He says, " The whole interior arrangements of gov- 
ernments should be to promote and diffuse knowledge 
and industry; their whole exterior negotiations to 
estabhsh a social intercourse with each other, and to 
give free circulation to the whole produce of virtuous 
industry." ^ He was a pronounced and ardent free- 
trader ; and his most warlike acts, his greatest inven- 
tions in the military and the naval arts, were intended 
to promote the cause of free-trade by driving from 
the ocean the fleets of all nations seeking to control 
the high seas for their own exclusive purposes, in 
order that he might thus aid in securing that safety 
against aggression which is the essential prerequisite 
of universal freedom of exchanges. "■ He considers 
what he calls the war system of the old world as the 
cause of the misery of the greatest portion of its in- 
habitants, and this leads him to a curious investiga- 
tion of its effects." 2 His "Thoughts on Free 

1 Colden's Life of Fulton, p. 22. 

2 Ibid., p. 23. 



58 ROBERT FULTON. 

Trade " follow the same line of study. In this little 
tract, still unpubhshed, he developed his ideas at some 
length, seeking to show that foreign possessions and 
taxes on imports are necessarily injurious to nations. 
It is dated 1797; but there is no evidence that it 
was ever published, or ever presented to the French 
government in any form. He was at this time en- 
deavouring to impress his views upon Carnot, — the 
greatest statesman of his time, then the representa- 
tive, in a family of men of genius, of the better 
ideas of the revolutionary period, — and to obtain 
through him some recognition of what he thought right 
principles of administration, and which were, in his 
view, essential to the promotion of the best interests 
of the people. When Carnot was compelled to 
leave Paris, at the inauguration of the new govern- 
ment, Fulton laid his plans before the Directory; 
but they do not appear to have influenced that 
body, and seem to have remained unnoticed. 

Fulton's conclusion was : — " After this I was 
convinced that society must pass through ages of 
progressive improvement before the freedom of the 
seas could be established by an agreement of nations 
that it was for the true interest of the whole. I saw 
that the growing wealth and commerce of the United 
States, and their increasing population, would compel 
them to look for a protection by sea, and perhaps 
drive them to the necessity of resorting to European 
measures by estabUshing a navy. Seeing this, I 
turned my whole attention to finding out means of 
destroying such engines of oppression by some 



ROBERT FULTON'S EARLY LIFE. 59 

method which would put it out of the power of any 
nation to maintain such a system, and would com- 
pel every government to adopt the simple principles 
of education, industry, and a free circulation of its 
produce." Thus it was the statesman in the portrait- 
painter that led him to apply his great genius as an 
inventor and as a mechanic to the production of 
new means of protecting the people, their industries;, 
their lives, their liberties, through the novel applica- 
tions of the useful arts, and guiding their genius in 
invention and construction, first to defence, then to 
better methods of production and more efficient in- 
dustry. Fulton was statesman, as well as artist, 
mechanic, engineer, economist, inventor. 



6o ROBERT FULTON. 



IV. 

THE ARTIST AS ENGINEER. 

Robert Fulton was an artist in the best sense of 
that term ; and, Hke all great painters or sculptors, like 
all men of genius who accomplish anything by actual 
doing, he was as naturally and truly a mechanic. The 
artistic sense has little value for purposes of accom- 
plishment without manual and tactual dexterity and 
sensitive nerves and muscles in exact accord with the 
operations of the thought- faculty. Every successful 
artist, like every surgeon, investigating chemist, phy- 
sicist, naturalist of whatever type, depending on ma- 
nipulative operations for his triumphs, must be naturally 
a mechanic, with all the mechanic's intuitions largely 
developed. He must be a constructor as well as a 
thinker, and must be able to do, as well as to imagine 
beautiful things. All this was in Fulton, and in such de- 
gree that he turned his mind with the greatest facility 
from the creations of the artist to the constructions of 
the engineer and the mechanic. He found it as easy 
to take up the drawing instruments of the engineer as 
the pencil of the painter ; as easy to devise new forms 
of road, canal, ship, or machine as new and lovely pic- 
tures of landscape, or to depict human features in all 
their wonderful modes of expression, and to illustrate 



THE ARTIST AS ENGINEER. 6 1 

all their marvellous shades of character. The success- 
ful artist was even more successful as engineer. 

The genius of the engineer and the originality of 
the inventor, which has been seen in the boy of four- 
teen, developed with his growth, and without interrup- 
tion, into his mature years. The sketches made for 
the gunmaker of his native town were but the proto- 
types of the drawings of the greater works of the 
engineer and of the mechanic. The invention of the 
sky-rocket was the antecedent of the invention of a 
submarine engine-of-war ; the little paddle-boat on 
the Conastoga was the symbol of the later steamboat 
on the Seine and on the Hudson ; and the boy in- 
ventor was the parent of the man as engineer. But 
the genius which had been, in youth, guided and given 
direction by the whims of the child, in later years was 
made the servant of the sage ; and the grander plans 
of the statesman, devised with a view to the ameliora- 
tion of the trials of humanity, were promoted effec- 
tively by the application of the same genius to their 
accomplishment. The glory of the inventor is the 
greater that it came of the grander thought of the 
humanitarian. 

Fulton's work as engineer appears to have been 
both extensive and successful. His attention seems 
to have been called at an early period in his profes- 
sional career to the extension and improvement of 
canals. The floods of 1795 in Great Britain, where 
he was then residing, destroyed much property, and 
seriously injured portions of the Shrewsbury Canal, 
especially in the neighbourhood of Long, where it was 



62 ROBERT FULTON. 

carried over the Tern on an aqueduct of some magni- 
tude. Fulton at once set about the study of better 
methods of construction, and devised many ingenious 
forms of apparatus and machinery for use in canal 
construction and operation. He proposed, in 1796, 
a cast-iron aqueduct, of which he submitted complete 
plans and working drawings to a committee of the 
Board of Agriculture, in March of that year. He 
proposed the use of castings which, as he said, could 
be "cast in open sand," and erected without other 
than the simplest and most inexpensive kind of stag- 
ing, instead of the elaborate centring necessitated by 
construction of stone arches, — a detail of the older 
construction which often cost more time and more 
thought in planning, and proved hardly less costly in 
building, than the main structure itself after its com- 
pletion. He showed that his plan compelled the 
making of but few patterns, and those of easy and 
cheap construction ; and that the difficulties of secur- 
ing a water-tight lining so great in stone works of 
this sort, were, with iron, insignificant. In case of a 
leak occurring later, it would be easily and quickly 
detected, and as readily and certainly staunched; 
while in stone it often was not observed until much 
damage had been done ; and its repair was sometimes 
a matter of great difficulty, delay, and expense. 

One of these aqueducts of cast-iron was afterward 
erected, on the plan of Fulton, over the Dee, at Pont- 
cylytee, twenty miles from Chester, composed of eigh- 
teen spans of fifty-two feet each, and supported on 
pillars, the tallest of which, in the middle of the val- 



THE ARTIST AS ENGINEER. . d:^ 

ley, was one hundred and twenty-six feet high. The 
total length of the structure was about three hundred 
and twenty-nine yards, its width twenty feet, and its 
depth six feet. The tow-path was secured on one 
side, bracketed to the body of the aqueduct, and 
rendered safe by means of a strong iron rail. 

The same principles were adopted in the prepara- 
tion of plans for bridges of various kinds, and for all 
purposes ; and plans, detail drawings, and models 
were exhibited to the Board of Agriculture at about this 
time, for canals, railways, — then already in existence, 
though before the days of steam locomotion and of the 
substitution of the steam-horse for animal power, — and 
for highways. Several of these bridges were erected 
on the line of the Surrey Iron Railway, including one 
at Wandsworth. Bridges were designed by Fulton 
for carrying the roads across deep and wide valleys on 
inclined gradients ; and in such cases, often, he pro- 
posed to haul them over by means of endless ropes, 
instead of sending the horses over with them on 
tow-paths attached to the bridge, or forming part of it. 
Water-power or other efficient motor was to be em- 
ployed where convenient. The modern and now 
usual system of discharging from the railway into 
barges or vessels by dumping the load from the cars 
or wagons into a slide leading down to the water-side 
from the higher level of the road, was one of the plans 
here introduced. Special provisions were made for 
the passing of roads, water-courses, and other lines 
of rail, and the whole formed a complete and con- 
sistent scheme. Fulton's biographers state that he 



64 ROBERT FULTON. 

always made the most perfect and detailed plans, the 
neatest of drawings, and usually very accurate models, 
before proceeding with his proposals or laying them 
before capitaUsts or public officials. His computations 
of costs were equally exact, detailed, and well planned, 
giving the expense of details of construction, foot by 
foot, all dimensions, the loads to be carried for a 
single horse, the speed, the profits, and the estimated 
revenue. 

One of Fulton's most interesting and novel, if not 
his most daring of innovations, was that in which he 
proposed to take his boats out of the canal and trans- 
port them overland at certain parts of the route, to 
avoid the first cost of construction of a canal in a diffi- 
cult country. These "inclined planes" were actually 
built, and were found practicable ; and illustrations 
of this plan have been in use for many years in the 
United States, on the line of the Morris and Essex 
Canal and elsewhere, while the great scheme of Captain 
Edes, of a trans-isthmian railway, uniting the Atlantic 
and Pacific Oceans, was a development of the same 
idea on a grander scale. This invention was patented 
by Fulton in England, in May, 1 794. It was proposed 
that the boats should be either taken upon cradles of 
suitable form and size or into caissons in which they 
could float, and the whole mass then drawn out of 
water on wheels, and up the inclined planes to the 
higher level, or lowered from the upper to the lower 
level, as might be required, ^y horse-power. Coun- 
terbalances were adopted to make the total load a 
minimum, and every device then known was applied 



THE ARTIST AS ENGINEER. 65 

for reducing friction and resistances. Water-power, 
wliere available, was to be substituted for horse-power, 
and brakes were employed to control the load when 
lowering it. It was proposed that in this manner 
advantage should be taken of the opportunities oc- 
casionally oifering to utilize broad streams, or even 
considerable lengths of rivers, in place of the costly 
construction of canals, by sending the boats down on 
the one side and taking them up on the other, or by 
running for a distance along the thread of the stream, 
then resuming the course of the canal, transferring 
from the one to the other by means of inclined 
planes. The boats were so designed that they could 
be easily hauled by horse- power, and yet so light that 
the transfer on the inclined planes should not, even 
where quite steep, become a serious task. In other 
cases, he arranged for drawing water from the upper 
level and sending it down into the lower portion 
of the canal, utilizing its weight in the passage by 
employing it in the raising of the boats. In some 
cases he used centrifugal fans or blowers as regulators 
of speed. 

These plans were, many of them at least, described 
in a treatise " On the Improvement of Canal Naviga- 
tion," published in London, in 1796, in 4to size, and 
illustrated by many neatly-made plates. Several 
forms of boat for his special purposes are there 
shown by Fulton, and each adapted to its peculiar 
purpose, as for rapid or for slow speeds ; for market- 
ing or for heavy freighting ; for mounting on wheels 
and transportation overland. He used an elevator 

5 



66 ROBERT FULTON. 

for perpendicular lifts, and described all its details of 
construction, including a counterbalance, which re- 
lieved the hoist from unnecessary strains. This sub- 
ject occupied the attention of the great engineer 
throughout the remainder of his life ; and later, even 
while in the midst of the most engrossing labours on 
the more immediately promising inventions, and while 
working upon his scheme of steam- navigation, Fulton 
was able to find an occasional opportunity to give a 
little leisure to the promotion of canal construction 
abroad and at home. His treatise on the subject, 
published in both French and English, called the at- 
tention of Mr. Gallatin, later Secretary of the Treasury 
of the United States, to his work, and he was invited 
by that gentleman to present his views in detail, for 
use in a Report to Congress relating to internal 
improvements. 

In his report to the Secretary of the Interior, Ful- 
ton exhibits his Statesmanlike quality of mind, and 
some of his most impressive thoughts. He quotes 
Hume, who says : " The government of a wise people 
would be little more than a system of civil police ; 
for the best interest of man is industry and a free 
exchange of the produce of labour for the things that 
he may require," and goes on to ask " what stronger 
bonds of union can be invented than those which 
enable each individual to transport the produce of his 
industry twelve hundred miles for sixty cents the hun- 
dred weight?" He refers to the case of England 
and Scotland, once enemies, now bound together " by 
habit, by turnpike roads, by canals, and by reciprocal 



THE ARTIST AS ENGINEER. 67 

interests ; " " and when the United States are bound 
together by canals, by cheap and easy access to a mar- 
ket in all directions, by a sense of mutual interests 
arising from mutual intercourse and mingled commerce, 
it will be no more possible to split them into indepen- 
dent and separate governments, each lining its own 
frontiers with fortifications and troops, to shackle 
their own exports and imports to and from the 
neighbouring States, than it is now possible for the 
government of England to divide and form again 
into seven kingdoms." And speaking of his ideas 
and their origin, he says : " It is now eleven years 
since 1 have had this plan in contemplation for the 
good of my country; " and "it contemplates a time 
when canals shall pass through every vale, winding 
around each hill, and bind the whole country together 
in bonds of social intercourse." 

On his return to his native country in 1807, Fulton 
addressed letters to the Government on this subject, 
and again in 1810 wrote to the legislature of New 
York on the same subject, acting later as a commis- 
sioner to investigate the practicability of securing in- 
tercommunication in this manner between the waters 
of the great lakes and the Hudson. As late as 1814 
he was still urging this project, which finally resulted 
in the construction of the Erie Canal, — a system of 
public improvements which became ultimately a source 
of enormous wealth to the country, and of advantage 
to the State through which it passed. 

In a letter to President Madison in 1 8 1 o he wrote : 
" Canals bending around the hills would irrigate the 



68 ■ ROBERT FULTON. 

grounds beneath and convert them into luxuriant 
pasturage. They would bind a hundred millions of 
people in one inseparable, compact body, alike in 
habits, in language, and in interest, — one homoge- 
neous brotherhood, — the most invulnerable, power- 
ful, and respectable on earth." " Will you not search 
into the most hidden recesses of science," he asks, 
to find a means " to direct the genius and resources 
of the country to useful improvements, to the sciences, 
to the arts, education, the amendment of the public 
mind and morals? " "In such pursuits lie real hon- 
our and the nation's glory j " " such are the labours 
of enlightened republicans, — of those who labour for 
the public good." 



THE ENGINEER AS INVENTOR. 69 



V. 



THE ENGINEER, AS INVENTOR, IN SUBMARINE 
WARFARE. 

While it is true that the genius of Fulton as an 
inventor was to a certain extent exhibited in his civil 
constructions, and in his numerous novel devices for 
the improvement of canals and their navigation, the 
engineer of to-day would regard them as rather simple 
and commonplace constructions, and as illustrating 
the ordinary solution of every-day problems, rather 
than as the product of remarkable inventive talent. 
Were there any question of his great skill and talent 
in this department, however, the study of his plans 
for the institution of a system of submarine naviga- 
tion and warfare would thoroughly remove all doubt. 
In the early part of the century, perhaps before, he 
had given much thought to the means available for 
securing what he considered essential to the indepen- 
dence of nations, — the freedom of the seas. These 
studies finally resulted in the production of a very 
complete system, both of apparatus and methods, and 
in the attainment of some success — a very remark- 
able degree of success for those times — in their 
application in practice. 

Fulton was in France in the year 1803, when he 
received a message from the British ministry, asking 



70 ROBERT FULTON. 

that he meet an agent of that government in Holland 
for the purpose of discussing the character and appli- 
cations of his invention, the general nature of which 
was fully understood by Lord Stanhope, who had 
become interested in Fulton and had kept him in 
view, apparently hoping to secure from him some 
useful inventions for use in the British army and navy. 
The inventor proceeded to Holland as arranged ; but 
the agent did not meet his appointment, and Fulton 
returned to Paris, where he was followed by his in- 
tending correspondent in the spring of the year 1804, 
by whom he was induced to visit London and confer 
with the new ministry. A commission was appointed 
in June of the same year, consisting of five distin- 
guished engineers and military men, who examined 
the plans presented them with interest, but with true 
British conservatism reported against them as "im- 
practicable." Fulton proceeded at once to demon- 
strate their entire practicability. 

An expedition fitted out against the French fleet 
in the harbour of Boulogne failed in consequence, not 
of defects in the torpedoes, but through some inad- 
vertence in their operation by the inexperienced men 
intrusted with their appHcation. Fulton next con- 
ducted experiments illustrating their value and power, 
blowing up a heavy brig in Walmar roads, beyond 
Deal, October 15, 1805, under the walls of the castle 
of Mr. Pitt. Seventy pounds of powder were em- 
ployed, and the result, as described by the inventor, 
was perfectly satisfactory : " Exactly in fifteen minutes 
from the time of drawing the peg and throwing the 



THE ENGINEER AS INVENTOR. 7 1 

carcass into the water, the explosion took place. It 
lifted the brig almost bodily, and broke her completely 
in two. The ends sank immediately, and nothing 
was seen but floating fragments." . . . " In fact, her 
annihilation was complete, and the effect was most 
extraordinary." The vessel "went to pieces like 
a shattered eggshell." Nothing came of his efforts, 
however, in Great Britain. 

The work which had thus attracted the attention of 
the British government had been in progress, how- 
ever, for some years in France before Fulton was 
called to England, and he had already been equally 
disappointed by the French government. His motto 
had been, as he afterward expressed it, " The liberty 
of the seas will be the happiness of the earth ; " and 
his desire was to break up all naval warfare. He was 
therefore indifferent where or how his enterprise 
should begin. Naval warfare once rendered impos- 
sible, the freedom of the seas was assured, and the 
liberty and prosperity of his native country to that 
extent made safe. His first experiments were made 
at least as early as 1797, when with the aid of Mr. 
Barlow in Paris he attempted to make a form of what 
to-day would be called the "automobile," or self- 
moving torpedo. His machine was intended to drive 
a cigar-shaped torpedo in a definite direction, and to 
a prescribed place, and there to fire the charge. The 
experiment was not a success, however; and it was 
long before he could accomplish anything at all satis- 
factory to himself. The Fulton "automobile" tor- 
pedo was the precursor and the prototype of the 



72' ROBERT FULTON. 

Lay and Howell, the Whitehead, and all the fleet of 
torpedoes of modern times. 

In spite of every discouragement, the great en- 
gineer and inventor worked on, seeking ways, as he 
said, to deliver the world from British oppression by 
making the high seas free to all. The Directory, 
however, rejected his plans, and would have nothing 
to do with his experiments. A change occurred in 
the outlook the instant the First Consul took his 
place in the government. He was immediately in- 
terested in the plans of the American mechanic, and 
at once formed a commission, consisting of Volney, 
La Place, and Monge, all distinguished men, to inves- 
tigate the schemes to be laid before them. Fulton 
built a submarine boat during the winter of 1800- 
1801, and in the following summer invited this com- 
mission to witness experiments with it, intending to 
make it of service in his system of torpedo- warfare. 

This " diving-boat," as he called it, seems to have 
been remarkably successful, judging it by even our 
modern standards, and is worthy of description.^ 

In the course of his experiments at Brest, Fulton 
found it to be perfectly practicable to descend to any 
depth, and to take any course that he might desire. 
He actually entered channels of twenty-five feet depth 
and explored their deepest soundings, and was only 

1 Mr. Fulton had directed the whole force of his mind to 
mathematical learning and mechanical philosophy. Plans of 
defence against maritime invasion, and of sub-aquatic naviga- 
tion, had occupied his reflections. During the late war, he was 
the Archimedes of his country. — Reigart. 



THE ENGINEER AS INVENTOR. 73 

prevented from attempting greater depths by the fact 
that he had a boat which would not safely withstand 
the great external pressure there met. The depth 
was determined by the use of the barometer, meas- 
uring the external pressure, and he directed the 
course by means of the compass. He found the 
boat as obedient to the helm under water as above. 
The air-supply was renewed by drawing upon a res- 
ervoir in which was compressed two hundred times 
its volume of atmospheric air. Using this as a re- 
serve, the inventor was able to remain under water 
nearly four hours and a half. 

St. Aubin's account, as given by Golden, is as fol- 
lows : " The diving-boat, in the construction of which 
he is now employed, will be capacious enough to con- 
tain eight men, and provision enough for twenty days, 
and will be of sufficient strength and power to enable 
him to plunge one hundred feet under water, if neces- 
sary. He has contrived a reservoir of air, which will 
enable eight men to remain under water eight hours. 
When the boat is above water it has two sails, and 
looks just like a common boat ; when she is to dive, 
the mast and sails are struck. 

" In making his experiments, Mr. Fulton not only 
remained a whole hour under water, with three of his 
companions, but had the boat parallel to the horizon 
at any given distance. He proved that the compass 
points as correctly under the water as on the surface, 
and that while under water the boat made way at the 
rate of half a league an hour, by means contrived 
for the purpose. 



74 ROBERT FULTON, 

"It is now twenty years," continues St. Aubin, 
" since all Europe was astonished at the first ascension 
of men in balloons ; perhaps in a few years they will 
not be less surprised to see a flotilla of diving-boats, 
which on a given signal shall, to avoid the pursuit of 
an enemy, plunge under water, and rise again several 
leagues from the place where they descended. 

" The invention of balloons has hitherto been no 
advantage, because no means have been found to 
direct their course. But if such means should be 
discovered, what would become of camps, cannons, 
fortresses, and the whole art of war? 

"But if we- have not succeeded in steering the bal- 
loon, and even were it impossible to attain that object, 
the case is different with the diving-boat, which can 
be conducted under water in the same manner as 
upon its surface. It has the advantage of sailing 
like the common boat, and also of diving when pur- 
sued. With these qualities it is fit for carrying secret 
orders, to succour a blockaded fort, and to examine 
the force and position of the enemy in their harbours. 
These are sure and evident benefits which the diving- 
boat at present promises. But who can see all the 
consequences of this discovery, or the improvements 
of which it is susceptible? Mr. Fulton has already 
added to his boat a machine, by means of which he 
blew up a large boat in the port of Brest ; and if 
by future experiments the same effect could be pro- 
duced in frigates or ships-of-the-line, what will be- 
come of maritime wars, and where will sailors be 
found to man ships-of-war when it is a physical cer- 



THE ENGINEER AS INVENTOR. 75 

tainty that they may at every moment be blown into 
the air by means of diving-boats, against which no 
human foresight can guard them?" 

It was in relation to the plans of this boat that the 
keen-sighted Napoleon wrote his order for the organ- 
ization of the commission empowered to examine 
and report upon Fulton's plans, and of which order 
the following is the text : — 

" I have just read the project of Citizen Fulton, 
Engineer, which you have sent me much too late, 
since it is one that may change the face of the world. 
Be that as it may, I desire that you ' immediately ' con- 
fide its examination to a commission of members chosen 
by you among the different classes of the Institute. 

" There it is that learned Europe would seek for 
judges to resolve the question under consideration. 
A great truth, a physical, palpable truth, is before my 
eyes. It will be for these gentlemen to try and seize 
it and see it. As soon as their report is made it will 
be sent to you, and you will forward it to me. Try 
and let the whole be determined within eight days, 
as I am impatient. 

"From, the Imperial Camp at Boulogne, this 21st 
July, 1801." 

Thus, although his talent as an inventor and his 
skill as a great mechanic and engineer were not dis- 
played in any remarkable way in the construction of 
his steamboat, they were exhibited most remarkably 
in both earlier and later work, and were most won- 
derfully displayed in all the details of his methods of 
submarine warfare. 



76 ROBERT FULTON. 

One of the greatest of all inventions was this " div- 
ing-boat," in which, like a veritable Captain Nemo, 
he prowled about beneath the waters of the harbour 
of Brest during all the summer of 1801, coming to 
the surface like the gigantic balsena to get breath, 
plunging beneath it again, rising or diving, moving 
forward or backward, turning and returning, and after 
a time coming above water where least expected, and 
sailing away like any of the commonplace craft with 
which the harbour was crowded. He spent, at times, 
several hours below the surface; and once, when a 
ship was placed at his disposal by Bonaparte, then 
First Consul, he attacked her from beneath, and blew 
her into the air with his torpedoes. 

Fulton's diving-boat, the " Nautilus," and his power- 
ful torpedoes, kept the British fleet in a state of per- 
petual apprehension j for it was well known that he was 
negotiating with the French government for the pur- 
chase of his inventions, and had promised Napoleon 
" to deliver France and the whole world from British 
oppression." 

Dissatisfied with the passive and uncertain char- 
acter of torpedoes as weapons of submarine warfare, 
Fulton, although far more successful in their use 
than any inventor of his own or even the succeed- 
ing generation, finally gave up all his experiments, 
and next turned his attention to the adaptation of 
heavy ordnance to use under water. Returning to 
the United States in December, 1806, after nearly 
twenty years' residence in Europe, and breaking off 
the fruitless negotiations with the Governments of 



THE ENGINEER AS INVENTOR. 77 

France and England, in which he had sacrificed so 
much time during the previous five years, he presented 
his plans to the Government of the United States. 
He received much encouragement from President 
Jefferson, from President Madison, and from Smith, 
the Secretary of State and of the Navy under the 
two Presidents. 

According to Golden, in a paper which Mr. Fulton 
read to certain gentlemen who were appointed by the 
British ministry in the month of August, 1806, to 
confer with him, he says : " At all events, whatever 
may be your award, I never will consent to let these 
inventions lie dormant, should my country at any 
time have need of them. Were you to grant me an 
annuity of ;^20,ooo a year, I would sacrifice all to the 
safety and independence of my country." 

Fulton concludes a letter to Lord Grenville in the 
following words : "It never has been my intention 
to hide these inventions from the world on any con- 
sideration. On the contrary, it ever has been my 
intention to make them public as soon as may be 
consistent with strict justice to all with whom I am 
concerned. For myself, I have ever considered the 
interest of America, free commerce, the interest of 
mankind, the magnitude of the object in view, and 
the national reputation connected with it, superior to 
all calculations of a pecuniary nature." 

While conducting the correspondence with Jeffer- 
son, Fulton wrote a letter describing his " method of 
firing guns under water." The inventor received a 
favourable reply from the ex-President ; and this letter 



78 ROBERT FULTON. 

is one of those papers which will always possess his- 
torical interest, as having formed a part of the most 
interesting correspondence of those eventful times. 

The greatest naval engineer of the generation just 
passed away improved upon the rude methods and the 
comparatively feeble apparatus of Fulton ; and beside 
that latest and most formidable of modern engines of 
war, — the " Destroyer " of Captain Ericsson, — the 
almost forgotten, the never well-known, devices of the 
artist-engineer may appear insignificant. Yet when 
the circumstances by which he was surrounded are 
remembered, the total lack of all our modern knowl- 
edge of the technics of the profession, the absence 
of all those conveniences that now seem essential 
to good construction, the absence of all our standard 
forms of machinery, the inexperience of the workmen 
who were necessarily intrusted with the carrying out 
of his plans, and the positively obstructive policy 
of many departments of government, as well as the 
opposition of rival claimants of public and private 
countenance and assistance, — when it is realized how 
much of talent and how much of enterprise, energy, 
and persistence were demanded in the accomplish- 
ment of such tasks as Robert Fulton so splendidly 
and successfully undertook, it will certainly be ac- 
knowledged that he deserves all the fame that has 
been accorded him, either as a great mechanic or an 
ingenious and successful inventor. 

The author possesses the autographic copy of the 
letter to President Jefferson, in 1813, written by Ful- 
ton, and left among his papers after his death. The 



THE ENGINEER AS INVENTOR. 



79 



following is the text, illustrated with pen and ink 
sketches, here reproduced in fac-simile, precisely as 
roughly drawn in the hurry of composition or of copy- 
ing by the inventor, and with all the faults retained.^ 

New York, June 29, 1813. 
Thomas Jefferson, Esq. 

Dear Sir, — As you take a lively interest in every 

discovery which may be of use to America, I will 

communicate one I have made, and on which I have 

finished some very satisfactory experiments, that 

promise important aid in enabling us to enforce a 

respect for our commerce, if not a perfect liberty of 

the seas. My researches on torpedoes led me to 

reflections on firing guns under water, and it is about 

a month since I commenced a suit of experiments. 




Fig. I. — First Experiment. 

First Experiment. 

A gun 2 feet long, i inch diameter, was loaded 
with a lead ball and one ounce of powder ; I put a 

1 This letter was published, with the consent of the present 
owner, in Scribner's Magazine, August, 1881. 



8o 



ROBERT FULTON'. 



tin tube to the touch-hole, made it water-tight, and 
let it under water 3 feet. Before it I placed a 
yellow-pine plank, 4 inches thick, 18 inches from the 
muzzle. On firing, the ball went .through the 18 
inches of water and the plank. When the gun is 
loaded as usual, a tompkin or plug is put in the 
muzzle, to keep the water out of the barrel, as at A. 
In this experiment the gun being immersed, with the 
pressure of three feet of water on all its parts, that 
circumstance might be assigned as a reason for its not 
bursting. It then became necessary to try the effect 
with the muzzle in water and the breech in air. 




Fig. 2. — Second Experiment. 



Second Experiment. 

I procured a common wine pipe and inserted the 
gun, loaded as before, into one end, near the bottom ; 
the muzzle in the wine pipe 6 inches, the breech out 
18 inches. The pipe was then filled with water to 
the bunghole, having a head of water of 2 feet 3 
inches above the gun, and a body of water three feet 
long, through which the bullet had to pass. I then 
placed the opposite end of the pipe against a yellow- 



THE ENGINEER AS INVENTOR. 



8i 



pine post, in such manner that if the ball went 
through the water and pipe, it should enter the post. 
I fired. The ball passed through the three feet of 
water, the end of the pipe, and 7 inches into the 
post; the cask was blown to pieces, the gun not 
injured. 

Third Experiment. 

I obtained a cannon, — a 4-pounder, — for which 
I cast a lead ball that weighed 6 pounds 2 ounces ; 
the charge i-J pounds of powder. I placed it under 
water 4 feet, fired at a target distant 12 feet. The 
ball passed through the 1 2 feet of water, and a yellow- 
pine log 15 inches thick; the gun not injured. 




Fig. 3. — Fourth Experimeut. 



Fourth Experiment. 

I put an air box round the same cannon, except 
one foot of the muzzle, so that the muzzle might be 
in water, the breech in air, then let it under water 
4 feet, and fired as before through 12 feet of water 
and 15 inches of yellow- pine .; gun not injured. 

6 



82 



ROBERT FULTON. 



Fifth Experiment. 
I ordered a frame to be made of two pine logs, 
each 13 inches square, 45 feet long, on one end of 
which I placed a columbiad carrying a ball 9 inches 
diameter, 100 pounds weight. On the other end I 
erected a target 6 feet square, 3 feet thick, of sea- 
soned, sound oak, braced and bolted very strong, thus. 




Fig. 4. — Fifth Experiment. 

The columbiad, except two feet of the muzzle, was in 
an air box, the muzzle 24 feet 6 inches from the tar- 
get, the charge of powder 10 pounds. When fired, 
the ball entered only 9 inches, — that is, its diameter, 
— into the oak; the columbiad not injured. This 
experiment proved the range of 24 feet 6 inches 
through the water to be too great. 

Sixth Experiment. 

I took away the columbiad and box, and put a 
24-pounder in its place, loaded with 9 pounds of 
powder, the muzzle 22 feet from the target. On 
firing, it entered the target only its diameter, — that 
is, about 6 inches. Without mathematical experience, 



THE ENGINEER AS INVENTOR. 83 

the conclusion would have been that the 24-pounder, 
having a quantity of powder equal to near one half 
the weight of the ball, and the ball, 5^ inches diam- 
eter, presenting little more than one third the resist- 
ance to the water and wood that was presented by 
the 9 -inch ball, it should have entered further into the 
target. // did not ; momentum was wanting. 

Seventh Experiment. 

I loaded the columbiad with 12 pounds of powder, 
and placed the muzzle 6 feet from the target, the 
muzzle of the gun 2 feet under water ; the place 
where the ball struck the target 5 feet under water. 
In this case, the ball went through the target 3 feet 
thick, and where is not known ; the target was torn 
to pieces. In this experiment I fortunately proved 
beyond a doubt that columbiads can drive balls of 
one hundred pounds weight through six feet of 
water and the side of a first rate man-of-war. 

On examining Doctor Mutton's experiments and 
theory of projectiles in air, and comparing the den- 
sity of air with water, the theory is that the colum- 
biad fired might have been 10 feet from the target; 
the ball would then have struck with a velocity of 
650 feet a second, and have passed through 3 feet 
of oak. Had the columbiad been 16 feet long, and 
made of a strength to fire with 20 pounds of pow- 
der, the range might have been 15 feet through 
water. But I will take the medium distance of 10 
feet, and then the first undeniable principle is, that 
one vessel can range alongside of another within lOj 



84 



ROBERT FULTON. 



or 6, or even 5 feet, when giving the broadside of 
only two 9 -inch balls through the side of the en- 
emy, 8 feet below her water-line. The water would 
rush in with a velocity of 16 feet in a second, and 
sink her in 20 or 30 minutes; but from what I 
have seen in this sluggish kind of shot, I believe if 
they were put in about 5 feet from each other 
they would destroy timbers between the two points 
of shock, and open a space of many square feet, as 
thus. To put this discovery of submarine firing into 




Fig. 5. 

practice against the enemy, I have invented, a mode 
for placing my columbiads in ships, from 4 to 8 feet 
below the water-line, as in the following drawing. 




THE EIVGINEER AS INVENTOR. 



85 



My guns are to be cast with two rims round the 
muzzle, thus. The space a^ b^ to be woulded with 




Fig. 7. 



hemp, and covered with thick leather ; the gun then 
forms a piston hke that of a steam-engine or the pis- 
ton of a forcing-pump. The gun so prepared, there is 
a brass cylinder, with a strong head, cast, and bored, 
and bolted in the side of the vessel. When, as in 
Figure 8, the gun is run into this cylinder, it fits it 
exactly as the piston does a pump ; then if the 
caliber of the gun be 9 inches diameter, there must 
be a hole through the bottom of the cylinder of 1 1 
inches, as at C, to let the bullet pass, which hole is 
covered with a strong sliding 
valve, the axis of which comes 
inside of the vessel, as at D ; 
when the gun is run into the 
cylinder and ready to be fired, 
the valve opens. On firing, the 
gun recoils, shuts the valve, and \/\ 
stops out the water. Thus my 
guns can be loaded and fired 
under the water-Hne with near the same ease they are 
now worked above the water-line. My present idea 
is to have four columbiads on each side of a vessel. 




Fig. 8. 



86 ROBERT FULTON. 

and two in her bow, so that, whether she runs bow or. 
side on to the enemy, the bullets must pass through her, 
as in Figure 9. You will observe, in these sketches, 
that not using guns above the water-line, I have no 
port-holes, and the sides above the water may be 7 
or 8 feet thick, of pine logs, which renders them 
not only bullet-proof, but the vessel so buoyant that 
she cannot be sunk in this manner. My men who 
work the guns are out of danger under the water- 
line, and those who steer or work the sails are 
guarded by walls of wood, as A^ B, Figure 6. For 



1 




-J- II i. .1- 

Fig. 9. 

harbour defence, and perhaps finally for service, I 
have combined a steam-engine with this kind of 
vessel, to bring her up to the enemy in a calm, or 
light breezes. In harbours I would not use masts 
or rigging ; there would be nothing to shoot away, 
nor to hold by in case of attempts at boardage ; 
and in such case, as my deck would not be wanted 
for fighting or any other purpose, while in action I 
could make it inclined to twenty-five degrees, and 
slush it so that boarders could not keep their feet, 
but must slide into the water, they not having a pin 
or rope to hold by. The steam-engine would give 
a vessel of this description the means of playing 



THE ENGINEER AS INVENTOR. 87 

around the enemy, to take choice of position on 
her bow or quarter, and with Httle or no risk sink 
everything that came into our waters. 

For sea service we must depend more on num- 
bers, of which the calculations are in favour of my 
plan, — 

A seventy-four will cost $600,000, and then the 
seventy-four of an enemy is equal to her in power. 
The enemy also have such fleets as will enable them 
to bring two to one ; therefore the chances are against 
us. For $600,000 I can build seven vessels. Were 
they to attack a seventy- four, she could not dis- 
mast the whole of them ; some one must get within 
the range of eight or ten feet of her, where one fire 
from any one of them would certainly destroy 
her. This changes the chances seven to one in 
our favour, and against the enemy, for the same 
capital expended. 

This represents the seven vessels bearing down on 



<:L 







Fk 



an enemy. Here it is obvious that she cannot bring 
her guns to bear on more than one or two of them ; 



88 



ROBERT FULTON. 



if she lies to to fight, they must surround her; but 
if she sails better than any of them, and runs away, 
our object is gained, for then she can be driven off 
the ocean into port. As columbiads of 9-inch cal- 
iber are tremendous engines for close quarters, I 
could have two on pivots and circular carriages within 
my wooden walls, as thus, which being loaded with 




Fig. 11. 



semi-shot and chains twenty feet long, would at two 
hundred yards distance, while bearing down, cut her 
rigging, and disable her before coming to close action. 
We are now engaged in a war for principles important 
to our independence and interest as an active and 
great commercial nation, and if we fail, generations 
to come must contend for it until they succeed. At 
all events, millions must be expended, which, if as 
successful as our present hope, will fall far short of 
the liberty of the seas. In expectation to discover 
in the concealed magazines of science some certain 
mode for destroying military navies, and thereby 
establishing a perfect liberty of the seas, I have la- 
boured at intervals with much ardour for thirteen 



THE ENGINEER AS INVENTOR. 89 

years. I now submit to your reflections whether I 
have found it. My present impression, and Com- 
modore Decatur's, is that I have. This is also the 
opinion of many friends. For you will consider, that 
if those vessels can destroy such as now exist, they 
cannot be used against each other without both par- 
ties going to the bottom ; and such war cannot be 
made, — as duels would never be fought if both 
parties were obliged to sit on a cask of powder, and 
ignite it with a quick-match. 

Two millions of dollars would build twenty such 
vessels ; sixty men to each would be sufficient. Total, 
twelve hundred men. Such a fleet would clear our 
coast; and the probability is it would be the most 
powerful fleet in the world. One, however, should 
be built by Government, to establish principles on the 
public mind which are already proved in private. 
On the whole of this subject, after you have maturely 
reflected, it will give me great pleasure to have your 
opinions ; and if it coincides with mine, your influence 
at Washington may be necessary to carry it into effect. 
I sincerely hope this new art may give many pleasing 
hours to your evening of hfe. As this wish is from 
the heart, it is better than the usual unmeaning com- 
pliments with which letters are concluded. 

. . . Robert Fulton. 

Specification. 

I, Robert Fulton, give the following specification of 
my invention for injuring or destroying ships and vessels 
of war, by igniting gunpowder below a line horizontal to 



90 ROBERT FULTON. 

the surface of the water, or so that the explosion which 
causes injury to the vessel attacked shall be under 
water. Therefore, instead of having the cannon and 
port-holes of a ship or vessel of war as usual, above 
the surface of the water, I place my cannon so low in 
the vessel that their port-holes will be below the sur- 
face of the water any number of inches or feet which 
may be required, from six inches to four, six, ten, or 
more feet ; and thus, the cannon being fired with its 
muzzle under water, the bullets will pass through the 
water instead of through air, and through the sides 
of the enemy, from one to ten or more feet below the 
water-line, which, letting in the water in quantity ac- 
cording to the size of the holes and their depth under 
the surface, will sink the vessel attacked. 

Drawing the First 

represents the mechanism by which a cannon may 
be loaded inside of a ship, its muzzle be presented to 
hole in the side of the ship below the water-line, then 
be fired, its ball pass out through water, the cannon 
recoil into the ship, and the port-hole shut without 
letting in any inconvenient quantity of water. The 
gun may again be loaded and fired as before. 

For this purpose a ring or flange is cast round the 
cannon, near its muzzle, which may be filled in with 
hemp like the packing of the piston of a steam-engine, 
or with leather, Hke the piston of a pump ; a strong 
cylinder of brass or iron, or the most fit metal for the 
water in which it is to be used, is to be neat and 
smoothly bored, Hke the air-pump or cylinder of a 



THE ENGINEER AS INVENTOR. 9^ 

Steam-engine, and of a size exact to receive the 
muzzle of the cannon, with its before-mentioned 
packing ; hence, when the muzzle is pushed into the 
cylinder, it will be air and water tight, like the piston 
of a forcing- pump. The cylinder may be one, two, 
. or more feet long, as the use may require ; on its 
outer end a strong head and flange cast, which flange 
receives screw-bolts, to fasten it tight in the side of 
the vessel. In the centre of the said head there is a 
hole two inches in diameter greater than the caliber 
of the cannon to be used for the cylinder. The 
cannon being run home until its muzzle touches the 
head of the cylinder, as in the drawing, the cover to 
the hole is to be turned to one side, and the cannon 
fired, the ball and charge passing through the hole. 
On the recoil of the cannon, the sliding piece which 
covers the hole will descend and stop out the water. 
On this plan the cannon may be mounted on a car- 
riage with wheels or not, as future experience may 
prove best, and always recoil, and be worked in a line 
direct to the cylinder which is to receive the muzzle. 
In my experience so far, when the cannon is loaded 
as usual, I put a kind of tompkin or stopper in the 
muzzle, with canvas and white lead to keep the water 
out of the gun. Thus I have found the gun to fire 
perfectly well without any risk or accident. Although 
this mode may be good in practice, I do not posi- 
tively know that the water might not be admitted into 
the gun, up to a water-tight wad. The first plan 
will do ; the latter may be proved in future practice. 
Cannon may be thus arranged under the water-Hne 
|n such vessels of war as are usually built ; but as the 



92 ROBERT FULTON. 

whole battery comes below water, and may be several 
feet below, the vessel above the water- hne may be 
made five, six, or more feet thick, of pine logs or 
other wood, of hay or cotton or old rope or cabbage- 
tree, or any kind of material which will be bullet- 
proof. Thus all the men will be out of danger, as in 
the drawing. 

Cannon may be placed in the bow of a vessel, near 
the keel as in drawing, or suspended over the bow or 
sides as in drawings, and be fired with water-proof 
locks, constructed for common or fulminating powder. 
Various other modes of practice may be devised ; but 
the whole merit of this invention consists in having 
discovered and proved that cannon can be fired to 
greater advantage for the destruction or annoyance 
of an enemy, when so placed that the muzzle shall 
be under water, and the ball pass through water for 
the whole or greater part of the space it has to go till 
it strikes the enemy. The practice then will be with 
strong bullet-proof vessels to run alongside of an 
enemy within thirty, twenty, or ten feet, give her a 
broadside of one, two, three, . four, or more heavy 
pieces from thirty-two to one-hundred pounders, 
from four to twelve or fifteen feet below the water- 
line, and retire. Of this whole system of firing can- 
non, carronades, columbiads, or ordnance of any 
kind under water, so as thus to attack an enemy to 
advantage, I claim to be the original inventor; and 
claiming it as my right, I have deemed it sufficient to 
give one mechanical and practicable combination, — 
being improvements previous to further experiments. 
But any attempt to fire any kind of ordnance under 



THE ENGINEER AS INVENTOR. 93 

water in attacks on vessels of war, or maritime com- 
bat, will be considered a violation of my right and 
purvey of my invention. 

(Signed) Robert Fulton. 

Fulton had been in America but a few weeks when 
he collected his papers and drawings and went to 
Washington, to urge upon the Government his plan 
for torpedo and submarine warfare. He secured a 
small appropriation, returned to New York, set up his 
apparatus on Governor's Island, and prepared to ex- 
plain it to the representatives of the army and navy, 
and such others as were interested in the subject. 
He carried out a series of experimental demonstra- 
tions of the value of his inventions, in the course of 
which he blew up a vessel provided by the Govern- 
ment for the purpose, in the harbour of New York, 
and completely annihilated it, or, as Fulton himself 
said, ^^ decomposed''^ it. 

Descriptions of his inventions and of his experi- 
ments were, a little later, published by Fulton, in his 
" Torpedo War," a book addressed to the President 
of the United States and Members of Congress. The 
result was that Congress passed an act permitting the 
extension of these experiments, and for some years 
after this date (18 10), in fact up to the time of his 
death, Fulton was engaged intermittently in the pros- 
ecution of his studies, and in experiments in this 
direction. A commission was appointed to witness 
and report on his work, and Government continued 
its interest in the subject to the end. 



94 ROBERT FULTON, 

Reigart says that Chancellor Livingston, after a 
long examination of each particular subject which 
the experiments had suggested, expressed himself as 
follows : — 

" Upon the whole, I view this application of powder 
as one of the most important military discoveries 
which some centuries have produced. It appears to 
me to be capable of effecting the absolute security of 
your ports against naval aggression, provided that, in 
conjunction with it, the usual means necessary to 
occupy the attention of the enemy are not neglected." 

The reports were forwarded to the Secretary of the 
Navy by Mr. Fulton, with a letter from himself. His 
buoyant mind was never to be depressed. He gives 
his own views of the experiments, and writes with 
increased confidence in his ultimate success. He 
expresses himself satisfied with the report of the 
committee, and thinks their opinions were as favour- 
able to the infant art as, under the circumstances, 
could have been expected. It is due to Mr. Fulton 
to give some extracts from this letter. He says : — 

" It is proved and admitted, first, that the water- 
proof locks will ignite gunpowder under water ; sec- 
ondly, it is proved that seventy pounds of powder, 
exploded under the bottom of a vessel of two hun- 
dred tons, will blow her up ; hence it is admitted, 
that if a sufiQcient quantity of powder — and which 
I believe need not be more than two hundred pounds 
— be ignited under the bottom of a first-rate man-of- 
war, it would instantly destroy her; thirdly, it is 
proved and admitted by all parties concerned in the 



THE ENGINEER AS INVENTOR. 95 

experiments, that a gun can be fired under water, and 
that a cable of any size can be cut by that means, at 
any required depth. With these immediately impor- 
tant principles proved and admitted, the question 
naturally occurs, whether there be, within the genius 
or inventive faculties of man, the means of placing a 
torpedo under a ship in defiance of her powers of 
resistance. He who says that there is not, and that 
consequently torpedoes never can be rendered useful, 
must of course beHeve that he has penetrated to the 
limits of man's inventive powers, and that he has 
contemplated all the combinations and arrangements 
which present or future ingenuity can devise to place 
a torpedo under a ship. I will do justice to the 
talents of Commodore Rodgers. The nets, booms, 
kentledge, and grapnels which he arranged around the 
' Argus ' made a formidable appearance against one 
torpedo boat and eight bad oarsmen. I was taken 
unawares. I had explained to the officers of the 
navy my means of attack; they did not inform me 
of their means of defence. The nets were put down 
to the ground ; otherwise I should have sent the 
torpedoes under them. In this situation, the means 
I was provided with being imperfect, insignificant, and 
inadequate to the effect to be produced, I might be 
compared to what the inventor of gunpowder would 
have appeared, had he lived in the time of Julius 
Caesar, and presented himself before the gates of 
Rome with a four-pounder, and had endeavoured to 
convince the Roman people that by means of such 
machines he could batter down their walls. They 



g6 ROBERT FULTON. 

would have told him that a few catapultas, casting 
arrows and stones upon his men, would cause them 
to retreat; that a shower of rain would destroy his 
ill-guarded powder ; and the Roman centurions, who 
would have been unable to conceive the various 
modes in which gunpowder has since been used to 
destroy the then art of war, would very naturally 
conclude that it was an useless invention ; while the 
manufacturers of catapultas, bows, arrows, and shields, 
would be the most vehement against further experi- 
ments. I had not one man instructed in the use of 
the machines, nor had I time to reflect on this mode 
of defending a vessel. I have now, however, had 
time ; and I feel confident that I have discovered 
a means which will render nets to the ground, 
booms, kentledge, grapnel, oars with sword-blades, 
through the port-holes, and all such kinds of opera- 
tions, totally useless." 

The day after this most striking experiment, Mr. 
Fulton addressed a letter to the governor, and the 
mayor, and members of the corporation of New York, 
from which the following are extracts :" — 

" Yesterday my desire to satisfy public curiosity at 
the stated minute was as great as my never-ceasing 
anxiety to see our harbours and coast placed beyond 
the power of foreign insults, and I lament exceedingly 
that numbers were disappointed by the explosion not 
taking on the first attack, but it has given me much 
additional confidence in my engines. 

" On taking the torpedoes out of the water, where 
they had been for two hours, I found the locks and 



I'HE E Arc INKER AS INVENTOR. 97 

powder perfectly dry. I immediately discovered the 
cause of the failure, which I corrected by placing a 
piece of quick- match in the charge which the lock 
contained. Thus arranged, the fire was communi- 
cated to the seventy pounds of powder in the body 
of^he torpedoes, an explosion took place, and the 
brig was decomposed. 

"You have now seen the effect of the explosion 
of powder under the bottom of a vessel ; and this, I 
beheve, is the best and most simple mode of using it 
with the greatest effect in marine wars ; for a right 
application of one torpedo will annihilate a ship, nor 
leave a man to relate the dreadful catastrophe. Thus, 
should a ship-of-the-line, containing five hundred 
men, contend with ten good row-boats, each with a 
torpedo and ten men, she would risk total annihila- 
tion, while the boats under the cover of the night, 
and quick movements, would risk only a few men out 
of a hundred. 

" When two ships of equal force engage, it may be 
doubtful which will gain the victory. Frequently 
one hundred men are killed on each side, as many 
wounded, and the ships much injured ; but even the 
vanquished vessels will admit of being repaired, and 
thus the number of ships-of-war is not diminished, 
but continue to increase and tyrannize over the rights 
of neutrals and peaceable nations. 

" Having now clearly demonstrated the great effect 
of explosion under water, it is easy to conceive that 
by organization and practice the application of the 
torpedoes will, like every other art, progress in per- 

7 



98 ROBERT FULTON. 

fection. Little difficulties and errors will occur in the 
commencement, as has been the case in all new inven- 
tions ; but where there is little expense, so little risk, 
and so much to be gained, it is worthy of considera- 
tion whether this system should not have a fair trial. 
Gunpowder, within the last three hundred years, has 
totally changed the art of war, and all my reflections 
have led me to believe that this application of it will 
in a few years put a stop to maritime wars, give that 
liberty of the seas which has been long and anxiously 
desired by every good man, and secure to America 
that liberty of commerce, tranquillity, and indepen- 
dence, which will enable her citizens to apply their 
mental and corporeal faculties to useful and humane 
pursuits, to the improvement of our country, and the 
happiness of the whole people." 

Golden describes one of these schemes as almost 
the last work in which the active and ingenious mind 
of Mr. Fulton was engaged. This was a project for 
the modification of his submarine boat. " He had 
contrived a vessel which was to have a capacity, by 
means of an air-chamber like that which was in his 
' Nautilus,' to be kept at a greater or less depth in 
the water, but so that her deck should not be sub- 
merged. That chamber communicated with the 
water, and was shaped like a diving-bell ; but it could 
at pleasure, by an air-pump, be exhausted of air, and 
then it would, of course, fill with water ; or any requi- 
site quantity of air could be forced into it, so as to 
expel the water from it entirely. The sides of the 
vessel were to be of the ordinary thickness, but her 



THE ENGINEER AS INVENTOR. 99 

deck was to be stout and plated with iron, so as to 
render it ball-proof, which would not require so much 
strength as might be at first imagined, because, as no 
shot could strike it from a vessel but at a very great 
angle, the ball would ricochet on a slight resistance 
from a hard substance. She was to be of a size 
capable of sheltering a hundred men under her deck, 
and was to be moved by a wheel placed in another 
air-chamber near the stern, so that when the vessel 
was to be propelled only a part of the under paddles 
should be in water ; at least, the upper half of the 
wheel, or more, moving in air. The wheel was to be 
turned by a crank attached to a shaft, that should 
penetrate the stern to the air-chamber through a 
stuffing-box, and run along the middle of the boat 
until it approaches her bows. Through this shaft 
rungs were to be passed, of which the crew were to 
take hold as they were seated upon each side of it on 
benches. By merely pushing the shaft backward and 
forward the water-wheel would be turned, and the 
boat be propelled with a velocity equal to the force 
of a hundred men. By means of the air-chamber, 
she was to be kept, when not in hostile action, upon 
the surface, as common boats are ; but when in reach 
of an enemy she was to sink, so that nothing but her 
deck would be exposed to his view or to his fire. 
Her motion when in this situation would be perfectly 
silent, and therefore he called this contrivance a 
mute. His design was that she should approach an 
enemy, which he supposed she might do in fogs or 
in the night, without being heard or discovered, and 



loo ROBERT FULTON. 

do execution by means of his torpedoes or submarine 
guns. He presented a model of this vessel to the 
Government, by which it was approved ; and under 
the authority of the Executive he commenced build- 
ing one in this port ; but before the hull was entirely 
finished, his country had to lament his death, and 
the mechanics he had employed were incapable of 
proceeding without him." ^ 

^ Colden's Life of Fulton, p. 233. 



THE '' CLERMONTr . lOI 



VL 



Fulton's experiments with steam. — the 
*' clermont." 

In the opening chapter of this book we have traced 
the progress of invention in the apphcations of steam, 
especially in the direction of its use in navigation, and 
have seen how the minds of all great philosophers and 
mechanics were turning toward the solution of this 
now visible and almost imperative problem. It has 
been seen that, before Fulton's experiments were 
begun, a number of inventors on both sides of the 
Atlantic were engaged in the work, and that some 
progress had been made ; so much, in fact, that the 
outcome could hardly be doubted. Papin had, early 
in the eighteenth century, as we have seen, actually 
built a steamboat; Jonathan Hulls, in 1737, secured 
British patents on another form ; William Henry had 
put his little boat on the Conastoga River in 1763 ; 
the Comte d'Auxiron had launched a steamer on 
French waters in 1774 ; ten years later Oliver Evans 
and James Rumsey came forward with their peculiar 
systems of propulsion ; John Fitch appeared at about 
the same date, 1785, building a number of boats, 
and succeeding, apparently, in attaining seven miles 
an hour in his boat of 1 790, and making a total of 
several thousands of miles in its regular work as a 



I02 ROBERT FULTON, 

passenger boat between Philadelphia and Borden- 
town, Pennsylvania. Fitch's screw-boat, built forty- 
five years after Bernouilli had written his prize-essay 
suggesting the use of the " spiral oar," — as James Watt 
called it when proposing it, independently, about 1 784, 
— was sufficiently satisfactory, as proving the practica- 
bility of the device, when tried on Collect Pond, in 
New York City, in 1796. His contemporary in 
France, the Marquis de Jouffroy, had built two steam- 
ers on the Rhone, in 1781-1783; and in Scotland, Mil- 
ler, Taylor, and Symmington had almost succeeded, 
their efforts finally resulting in a real success, in 1801, 
when the Charlotte Dundas was built as a " stern- 
wheeler" on the Forth and Clyde Canal. Samuel 
Morey had put a little steamer on the Connecticut in 
1 790, and many other mechanics and inventors were 
busy in the same work by the time Fulton had reached 
that problem, among whom were two of Fulton's own 
later friends — Livingston and Roosevelt, — and his 
most enterprising rival, Jo.hn Stevens, the four working 
together to build a boat on the Passaic River in 1798. 
Fulton had, as early as 1798, proposed plans for 
steam-vessels to both the United States and British 
governments.-^ He had been too busy with his other 
schemes to pay much attention to this until satisfied 
that he was to expect nothing from the former. 

Fulton's experiments began while he was in Paris, 
and may have been stimulated by his acquaintance 
with Chancellor Livingston, who held the monopoly, 

^ History of the Steam-Engine, R. H. Thurston; Life of 
Fulton, Golden. 



THE ''CLERMONT." 1 03 

offered by the legislature of the State of New York, 
for the navigation of the Hudson River, to be ac- 
corded to the beneficiary when he should make a 
successful voyage by steam. Livingston was now 
ambassador of the United States to the Court of 
France, and had become interested in the young 
artist-engineer, meeting him, presumably, at the house 
of his friend Barlow. It was determined to try the 
experiment at once, and on the Seine. 

The giving of monopolies in the form here alluded 
to was, in those days, before the introduction of the 
modern systems of patent-law, a very common method 
of securing to inventors their full reward. John Fitch 
had been given a monopoly of this kind by the United 
States government for a period of fourteen years from 
March 19, 1787; which monopoly was later (1798) 
repealed by Congress ; this repeal being, in turn, denied 
by the courts, March 13, 1798, and subsequently con- 
tinued to June I, 1 8 19, meantime being transferred to 
Nicholas J. Roosevelt. The State Act in favour of 
Livingston was passed to take effect April 5, 1803, 
and was repealed as unconstitutional, and conflicting 
wjth the jurisdiction of the United States, June 17, 
181 7. The whole system went out of use at the latter 
date, as it was found to be dangerous and trouble- 
some, and on the whole far inferior to that admirable 
patent- system which succeeded it, and which has done 
so much to promote the marvellous prosperity of 
the country since the first quarter of the nineteenth 
century. 

Fulton went to Plombieres in the spring of 1802^ 



104 ROBERT FULTON. 

and there made his drawings and completed his plans 
for the construction of his first steamboat. Many 
attempts had been made, as we have seen, and many 
inventors were at work contemporaneously with him. 
Every modern device, — the jet-system, the " chaplet " 
of buckets on an endless chain or rope, the paddle- 
wheel, and even the screw-propeller — had been al- 
ready proposed, and all were famihar to the well-read 
man of science of the day. Indeed, as Mr. Benjamin 
H. Latrobe, a distinguished engineer of the time, wrote 
in a paper presented May 20, 1803, to the Philadel- 
phia Society, '■'■ A sort of mania began to prevail " for 
propelling boats by means of steam-engines. Fulton 
was one of those taking this mania most seriously. 
He made a number of models which worked success- 
fully, and justified the proprietors of the new arrange- 
ment in building on a larger scale. A model of the 
proposed steamboat was made during the year 1802, 
and was presented to the committee of the French 
legislature with the note of which a copy is given 
below. This latter document was discovered in the 
following manner, as described by " La Nature " in 
1880: — 

Jacques de Vaucanson, the French mechanician, 
was born in Grenoble, Feb. 24, 1709, and died in 
Paris, Nov. 21, 1782. He studied mechanics and 
anatomy for several years. The statue of the Flute- 
Player in the gardens of the Tuileries first sug- 
gested to him the project of making an automaton 
player, and he acquired great celebrity by works of 
this class. Cardinal Fleury appointed him inspector 



THE ''CLERMONT:' 105 

of silk manufactures ; and in consequence of his 
improvements in machinery he was attacked by the 
workmen of Lyons. He retaliated by constructing 
an automaton ass weaving flowered silks. He be- 
queathed his collection to the queen, who gave it 
to the Academic des Sciences. It was afterward 
scattered, in consequence of a contest with the mer- 
cantile authorities for the possession of the manufac- 
turing machinery. His portfolio, containing drawings 
and documents of great historical value, is now in 
possession of the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers, 
at Paris. One of the most valuable things in the 
collection is Fulton's design for his first steamboat, 
accompanied by an autograph letter : — 

Paris, 4 Pluviose, Year 11 (1803). 
Robert Fulton to Citizens Molar, Bandell, 

AND MONTGOLFIER. 

Friends of the Arts, — I send you herewith 
drawings sketched from a machine that I have con- 
structed, and with which I purpose soon to make 
experiments in causing boats to move on rivers by 
the aid of fire-pumps (^pompes-d-feu) . My first aim, 
in occupying myself with this idea, was to put it in 
practice on the long rivers of America, where there 
are no tow-paths, and where these would scarcely be 
practicable, and where, consequently, the expenses of 
navigation by steam would be placed in comparison 
with that of manual labour, and not with that of 
horse-power, as in France. 

In these drawings you will find nothing new, since 



io6 ROBERT FULTON. 

they are only [those of] water-wheels, — a method 
which has been often tried, and always abandoned 
because it was believed that a purchase could not be 
thereby obtained in the water. But after the experi- 
ments that I have made, I am convinced that the 
fault has not been in the wheel, but in ignorance of 
proportions, velocities, powers, and probably mechan- 
ical combinations. . . . Citizens, when my experi- 
ments are ready, I shall have the pleasure of inviting 
you to witness them ; and if they succeed, I reserve 
to myself the privilege of either making a present of 
my labours to the Republic, or deriving therefrom the 
advantages which the law authorizes. At present, I 
place these notes in your hands, so that if a like 
project should reach you before my experiments are 
finished, it may not have preference over my own. 
Respectfully, 

Robert Fulton. 

The drawings alluded to included that here shown, 
which has been reduced from the original, which is 
still safely preserved in Paris. As will be seen later, 
the general character of the vessel is that subsequently 
made so successful in America, and the form of the 
engine is precisely that of the later " Clermont." 

Fulton seems to have been considered, even at this 
early day, an authority on the subject of steam-navi- 
gation. Admiral Preble, in his History of Steam 
Navigation, (p. 35) quotes the following letter to a 
friend, written after his work on his own scheme 
for that season was over : — 



THE ''CLERMONT:' 



107 



Paris, the 20th of Sept., 1802. 
To Mr. Fulner Skipwith. 

Sir, — The expense of a patent in France is 300 
livres for three years, 800 ditto for ten years, and 
1,500 ditto for fifteen years. There can be no diffi- 
culty in obtaining a patent for the mode of propelKng 
a boat which you have shown me ; but if the author 
of the model wishes to be assured of the merits of his 



ELETATION- 





Fig. 7. — Fulton's First Steamboat. 

invention before he goes to the expense of a patent, 
I advise him to make the model of a boat in which 
he can place a clock- spring, which will give about 
eight revolutions. He can then combine the move- 
ments so as to try oars, paddles, and the leaves which 
he proposes. If he finds that the leaves drive the 
boat a greater distance in the same time than either 
oars or paddles, they consequently are a better ap- 
phcation of power. About eight years ago, the Earl 
of Stanhope tried an experiment on similar leaves, 
wheels, oars, and paddles, and flyers similar to those 



lo8 ROBERT FULTON. 

of a smoke-jack, and found oars to be the best. The 
velocity with which a boat moves is in proportion as 
the sum of the surfaces of the oars, paddles, leaves, 
or other machine is to the bow of the boat presented 
to the water, and in proportion to the power with 
which such machinery is put in motion. Hence, if 
the use of the surfaces of the oars is equal to the sum 
of the surfaces of the leaves, and they pass through 
similar curves in the same time, the effect must be 
the same. But oars have their advantage ; they 
return through air to make a second stroke, and 
hence create very little resistance ; whereas the leaves 
return through water, and add considerably to the 
resistance, which resistance is increased as the velocity 
of the boat is augmented. No kind of machinery 
can create power. All that can be done is to apply 
the manual or other power to the best advantage. If 
the author of the model is fond of mechanics, he will 
be much amused, and not lose his time, by trying 
the experiments in the manner I propose ; and this 
perhaps is the most prudent measure, before a patent 
is taken. I am, sir, with much respect, 

Yours, Robert Fulton. 

At this time the inventors had taken up the prob- 
lem, as we have seen, and several had been, during 
the preceding twenty years, working with more or less 
success to secure what every statesman of the period 
saw would be ultimately a step toward the attain- 
ment of that great aim of Fulton, the commercial free- 
dom of the seas. As early as 1794? Lord Stanhope 



THE '' CLERMONT:' 109 

addressed a letter to Wilberforce on the question of 
peace or war, likely, he thought to be brought under 
discussion on the meeting of Parliament. In this 
letter he speculates on the possible resources of 
France, and hints that England is not invulnerable. 
He says : — 

" This country [Great Britain] is vulnerable in so 
many ways, the picture is horrid. By my letter I will 
say nothing on that subject. One instance, I will, 
however, state, because it is information you cannot, as 
yet, receive from any other quarter ; though in two or 
three months from the date of this letter the fact will 
be fully established, and you may then hear it from 
others. The thing I allude to is of peculiar impor- 
tance. The fact is this : I know (and in a few weeks 
shall prove) that ships of any size, and for certain 
reasons the larger the better, may be navigated in any 
narrow or other sea, without sails (though occasion- 
ally with), but so as to go without wind, and even 
directly against both wind and waves. The conse- 
quences I draw are as follows : First, that all the 
principal reasons against the French having the ports 
of Ostend, etc., cease, inasmuch as a French fleet 
composed of ships of the above-mentioned descrip- 
tion, would come out at all times from Cherbourg, 
Dunkirk, etc., as well as from Ostend, etc., and appear 
in the same seas. The water, even at Dunkirk, will 
be amply deep enough for the purposes of having them 
there. The French having Ostend, ought not, there- 
fore, under this new revolution in naval affairs, — for it 
would be a complete revolution, — to be a bar to peace. 



1 1 o ROBER T FUL TON. 

Under the old nautical system, naval men might have 
reasoned differently on that subject. But the most 
important consequence which I draw from this stu- 
pendous fact mentioned at the top of this page is 
this ; namely, that it will shortly 7'ender all the exist- 
ing navies of the world (/ mean military navies^ no 
better than lumber. For what can ships do that are 
dependent upon wind and weather against fleets 
wholly independent of either? Therefore the boasted 
superiority of the English navy is no more ! We 
must have a new one. The French and other na- 
tions will, for the same reasons, have their new 
ones." ^ 

The apprehension of Stanhope was the hope of Ful- 
ton ; but neither the hope nor the apprehension has 
as yet been verified. The introduction of steam- 
navigation became a success ; but that success came 
so slowly as to permit all nations to avail themselves 
of it, and none sooner or more completely than the 
two most active in the production of this revolution, 
— Great Britain and the United States. The British 
navy became a steam-navy, and the other nations of 
the world followed her lead ; so that the strife of the 
century, at sea, has been a struggle between, and for, 
steam-fleets. In this direction, the introduction of 
steam has resulted in the increased expenditure of 
money on fleets in such enormous amounts as to tax 
the people to the very limit of their endurance ; while 
the relative order in naval power of the greater 
nations has been comparatively little altered. 

1 Preble, p. 28. 



THE '' CLERMONTr 



III 



With the encouragement of Chancellor Livingston, 
who urged upon Fulton the importance of the intro- 
duction of steam-navigation into their native country, 
tJie latter continued his experimental work. Their 
boat was finished and set afloat on the Seine in 1803, 
in the early spring. Its proportions had been deter- 




Fig. 8. — Fulton's Experiments. 



mined by careful computation from the results of no 
less careful experiment on the resistance of fluids and 
the power required for propelling vessels ; and its 
speed was, therefore, more nearly in accord with the 
expectations and promises of the inventor than was 
the usual experience in those days. 

The Author has examined a collection of Ful- 
ton's sketches of these plans, including chaplet, side- 



112 



ROBERT FULTON. 



wheel and stern-wheel boats, driven by various foniis 
of steam-engine, some working direct, and some 
geared to the paddle-wheel shaft. Figure 8 is en- 
graved from these sheets. It represents the method 
adopted by Fulton to determine the resistance of 
various forms and proportions of bodies towed through 
water. Figure 9 is ''A Table of the resistance of 



WaUM 



Z02SI 



NAUTICAL M/i£J fiA HOUR. 

» 7 6 r /t 3 ? I 



mi \\m 19. 



llSJi 



ws 'an mi 
Kunu 



5.61 



zm\m 



25.36 



25J4 



imitVi 



S.2S 

izidi.os 



wMsm 



160 



\m 3.39 

L63 
\M 



0.7J 



OlKCiroN aP TJffiMOrjON OfTHE BODIES. •*- 



I 21^ 



■lili||l!llllllll|i!lilii|li3g||lllllll 



iiiHi 



lllllllllllillillllilllllllillil!i|lliis.'^ill|lii 



liipTi^-' 



Fig. 9. — Fulton's Table of Resistances. 

bodies moved through water, taken from experiments 
made in England by a society for improving Naval 
architecture, between the years 1793 and 1798." 
This is from a certified copy of "The Original 
Drawing on file in the Office of the Clerk of the 
New York District, making a part of the Demonstra- 
tion of the patent granted to Robert Fulton, Esqr., 
on the nth day of February, 1809. Dated this 
3rd March, 1814." 

Guided by these experiments and calculations, 
therefore, Fulton directed the construction of' his 
vessel. The hull was sixty-six feet long, of eight feet 



THE '' CLERMONTr 1 13 

beam, and of light draught. But unfortunately the hull 
was too weak for its machinery, and it broke in two 
and sank to the bottom of the Seine. Fulton at once 
set about repairing damages. He was compelled to 
direct the rebuilding of the hull, but the machinery 
was but slightly injured. In June, 1803, the recon- 
struction was complete, and the vessel was set afloat 
in July. 

August 9, 1803, this boat was cast loose in presence 
of an immense concourse of spectators, including a 
committee of the National Academy, consisting of 
Bougainville, Bossuet, Carnot, and Perier. The boat 
moved but slowly, making only between three and four 
miles an hour against the current, the speed through 
the water being about 4-J- miles ; but this was, all 
things considered, a great success. 

The experiment attracted little attention, notwith- 
standing the fact that its success had been witnessed 
by the committee of the Academy and by officers on 
Napoleon's staff. The boat remained a long time on 
the Seine, near the palace. The water-tube boiler 
of this vessel (Figure 10) is still preserved at the 
Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers at Paris, where it 
is known as Barlow's boiler. Barlow patented it in 
France as early as 1793, as a steamboat-boiler, and 
states that the object of his construction was to obtain 
the greatest possible extent of heating-surface. 

Fulton endeavoured to secure the pecuniary aid 
and the countenance of the First Consul, but in 
vain. 

Livingston wrote home, describing the trial and its 



114 



ROBERT FULTON. 



results, and procured the passage of an Act by the 
legislature of the State of New York, extendmg, nomi- 
nally to Fulton, a monopoly granted the former in 
1798 for the term of twenty years from April 5, 1803, 
— the date of the new law, — and extending the time 
allowed for proving the practicability of driving a boat 
four miles an hour by steam to two years from the 
same date. A later act further extended the time to 
April, 1807. 




Fig. TO. — Barlow's Water-Tube Boiler, 1793. 

In May, 1804, Fulton went to England, giving up 
all hope of success in France with either his steam- 
boats or his torpedoes, and the chapter of his work 
in Europe practically ends here. He had already 
written to Boulton & Watt, ordering an engine to be 
built from plans which he furnished them ; but he 
had not informed them of the purpose to which it 
was to be applied. This engine 1 was to have a steam- 

1 Thurston's History of the Steam-Engine, p. 256. 



THE '' CLERMONTr 1 15 

cylinder two feet in diameter and of four feet stroke. 
Its form and proportions were substantially those of 
the boat-engine of 1803. 

Meantime, the opening of the century had been 
distinguished by the beginning of work in the same 
direction by the most active and energetic among Ful- 
ton's later rivals. This was Col. John Stevens of Ho- 
boken, who, assisted by his son, Robert L. Stevens, 
was earnestly engaged in the attempt to seize the 
prize now so evidently almost within the grasp. This 
younger Stevens was he of whom the great naval 
architect and engineer, John Scott Russell, afterward 
remarked : " He is probably the man to whom, of all 
others, America owes the greatest share of its present 
highly improved steam-navigation." 1 The father and 
son worked together for years after Fulton had demon- 
strated the possibiHty of reaching the desired end, in 
the improvement of the hulls and machinery of the 
river steamboat, until in their hands, and especially 
in those of the son, the now familiar system of con- 
struction in all its essentials was developed. The 
elder Stevens, as early as 1789, evidently had seen 
what was in prospect, and had petitioned the legis- 
lature of the State of New York for a grant similar to 
that actually accorded Livingston, later ; and he had 
certainly, at that time, formed plans for the applica- 
tion of steam-power to navigation. The records 
show that he was at work on construction as early, 
at least, as 1791. The following is a brief state- 

1 Steam and Steam-Navigation,- J. S. Russell, Edinburgh, 
1841. 



ii6 



ROBERT FULTON. 



ment of his work, mainly as elsewhere given by the 
Author.^ 

In 1804 Stevens completed a steamboat sixty-eight 
feet long and of fourteen feet beam. Its boiler 
(Figure 11) was of the water-tubular variety. It con- 




Fig. II. — Section of Steam-Boiler, 1804. 

tained one hundred tubes, two inches in diameter and 
eighteen inches long, fastened at one end to a central 
water-leg and steam-drum. The flames from the fur- 
nace passed among the tubes, the water being inside. 




Fig. 12. — Engine, Boiler, and Screw-Propellers, used by Stevens, 1804. 

The engine (Figure 12) was dire cf-ac ting high-p7'es sure 

condensing, having a lo-inch cylinder, two feet stroke 

1 History of the Growth of the Steam-Engine, p. 264. 



THE '' CLERMONTr 



117 



of piston, and driving a well-shaped screw, with four 
blades. 

This machinery, — the high-pressure condensing 
engine, with rotating valves, and twifi screw-pro- 
pellers, — as rebuilt in 1805, is still preserved. The 
hub and blade of a single screw, also used with the 
same machinery in 1804, is likewise extant. 

Stevens's eldest son, John Cox Stevens, was in 
Great Britain in the year 1805, and while there pa- 
tented a modification of this sectional boiler. In his 




Fig. 13. — Stevens's Screw-Steamer, 1804. 

specification he says that he describes this invention 
as it was made known to him by his father, and adds : 
" From a series of experiments made in France, in 
1790, by M. Belamour, under the auspices of the 
Royal Academy of Sciences, it has been found that, 
within a certain range, the elasticity of steam is nearly 
doubled by every addition of temperature equal to 
30° of Fahrenheit's thermometer. These experi- 



1 1 8 ROBER T FUL TON. 

ments were carried no higher than 280°, at which 
temperature the elasticity of steam was found equal to 
about four times the pressure of the atmosphere. By 
experiments which have lately been made by myself, 
the elasticity of steam at the temperature of boiling 
oil, which has been estimated at about 600°, was found 
to equal forty times the pressure of the atmosphere-. 

" To the discovery of this principle or law, which 
obtains when water assumes a state of vapour, I cer- 
tainly can lay no claim ; but to the application of it, 
upon certain principles, to the improvement of the 
steam-engine, 1 do claim exclusive right. 

'< It is obvious that, to derive advantage from an 
application of this principle, it is absolutely necessary 
that the vessel or vessels for generating steam should 
have strength sufficient to withstand the great pressure 
from an increase of elasticity in the steam ; but this 
pressure is increased or diminished in proportion to 
the capacity of the containing vessel. The principle, 
then, of this invention consists in forming a boiler by 
means of a system, or combination, of a number of 
small vessels, instead of using, as in the usual mode, 
one large one, the relative strength of the materials 
of which these vessels are composed increasing in 
proportion to the diminution of capacity. It will 
readily occur that there are an infinite variety of 
possible modes of effecting such combinations ; but, 
from the nature of the case, there are certain, limits 
beyond which it becomes impracticable to carry on 
improvement. In the boiler I am about to describe, 
1 apprehend that the improvement is carried to the 



THE ''CLERMONT." 119 

Utmost extent of which the principle is capable. 
Suppose a plate of brass of one foot square, in which 
a number of holes are perforated, into each of which 
holes is fixed one end of a copper tube, of about an 
inch in diameter and two feet long, and the other 
ends of these tubes inserted in like manner into a 
similar piece of brass ; the tubes, to insure their 
tightness, to be cast in the plates ; these plates are to 
be inclosed at each end of the pipes by a strong cap 
of cast-iron or brass, so as to leave a space of an inch 
or two between the plates or ends of the pipes and 
the cast-iron cap at each end ; the caps at each end 
are to be fastened by screw-bolts passing through 
them into the plates ; the necessary supply of water 
is to be injected by means of a forcing-pump into the 
cap at one end, and through a tube inserted into the 
cap at the other end the steam is to be conveyed to 
the cylinder of the steam-engine ; the whole is then 
to be encircled in brick-work or masonry in the usual 
manner, placed either horizontally or perpendicularly, 
at option. 

" 1 conceive that the boiler above described em- 
braces the most eligible mode of applying the prin- 
ciple before mentioned, and that it is unnecessary to 
give descriptions pf the variations in form and con- 
struction that may be adopted, especially as these 
forms may be diversified in many different modes." 

Boilers of the character of those described in this 
specification were used on a locomotive built by John 
Stevens, in 1 824-1 825. 

The use of a high-pressure sectional boiler seventy 



I20 ROBERT FULTON. ' 

years ago is more remarkable than the adoption of 
the screw-propeller thirty years before the screw came 
into general use. 

Colonel Stevens designed a form of iron- clad in 
the year 1812, since reproduced by the late John 
Elder, of Glasgow, Scotland. It consisted of a 
saucer-shaped hull, plated with iron of ample thick- 
ness to resist the shot fired from the heaviest ordnance 
then known. This vessel was to be secured to a 
swivel, and anchored in the channel to be defended. 




Fig. 14. — Stevens's Twin-Screw Steamer, 1805. 

A set of screw-propellers, driven by steam-engines, 
and situated beneath the vessel, were arranged to 
permit the vessel to be rapidly revolved about its 
centre, working thus on the principle of the " turret " 
of Timby and Ericsson. As each gun came into line 
it was discharged, and then reloaded before coming 
around again. This, the first iron-clad ever designed, 
has recently been again brought out and introduced 
into the Russian navy, and called the *' Popoffska." 

Stevens next built a boat which he named the 
"^Phoenix," and made the first trial in 1807, just too 



THE '' CLERMONTP 12 1 

late to anticipate Fulton. Tliis boat was driven by 
paddle-wheels. 

Stevens, being shut out of the rivers of the State of 
New York by the monopoly held by Fulton and Liv- 
ingston, ran the ''Phoenix" for a time between New 
York Bay and New Brunswick, and on the Delaware. 

At that time no canal existed, and in June, 1808. 
Robert L. Stevens started to make the passage by sea. 
Although meeting a gale of wind, he arrived at Phila- 
delphia safely, having been the first to make a sea 
voyage by steam-power. 

From this time forward the Stevenses continued to 
construct steam- vessels, and, later, built the most 
successful steamboats on the Hudson River. 

Before recurring to the work of Fulton, a few more 
paragraphs may be devoted to Stevens.^ 

Col. John Stevens, of Hoboken, was the greatest 
professional engineer and naval architect living at the 
beginning of the present century. Without having 
made any improvem.ent in the steam-engine, like that 
which gave Watt his fame ; without being the first to 
propose navigation by steam, or steam-transportation 
on land, he exhibited a better knowledge of engineer- 
ing than any man of his time, and entertained and 
urged more advanced opinions, and more statesman- 
like views, in relation to the economical importance 
of the improvement of the steam-engine, both on land 
and water, than seem to have been attributable to any 
other leading engineer of that time, not excepting 
Robert Fulton. 

^ See a paper by the Author, " The Messrs. Stevens, as 
Engineers," etc. ; Journal of the Franklin Institute, Oct., 1S74. 



122 ROBERT FULTON. 

Dr. Charles King, then the distinguished President 
of the Columbia College, thus refers to the work of 
this great man.-^ 

" Mr. Stevens's attention was first turned, or rather 
the bent of his genius was developed and directed 
toward mechanics and mechanical philosophy, by the 
accident of seeing in 1787 the early and, as now may 
be said, imperfect steamboat of John Fitch navigating 
the Delaware River. He was driving in his phaeton 
on the banks of the river when the mysterious craft, 
without sails or oars, passed by. Mr. Stevens's inter- 
est was excited j he followed the boat to its landing, 
familiarized himself with the design and the details 
of this new and curious combination, and from that 
hour became a thoroughly excited and unwearied ex- 
perimenter in the application of steam to locomotion 
on the water, and subsequently on the land. 

" Having been brought by close family connection 
into intimacy with Robert R. Livingston (the Chan- 
cellor of this State, who married the sister of Colonel 
Stevens), he induced Mr. L. to join him in these 
investigations ; and they were persevered in at great 
cost, and with little immediate success, till Chancellor 
Livingston, in 1 801-1802, was sent as minister to 
France. 

" So much, however, was the Chancellor encour- 
aged by the experiments then made, that as eajly as 
1798 he obtained from the legislature of New York 
an exclusive grant for the use of steam on the waters 
of New York. This, however, became forfeit by 

1 Lecture on the Progress of the City of New York, 1843. 



THE '' CLERMONTr • 123 

the failure to avail within the limited time of its 
privileges. 

"But previously to the Act of '98, the legislature 
of New York had, as early as 1787, granted to James 
Rumsey and to John Fitch the exclusive right to 
navigate the waters of the State with steam-propelled 
vessels; and on the 9th of January, 1789, John Ste- 
vens petitioned the legislature for a like grant, — 
nothing having resulted from the preceding ones. 
Mr. Stevens in his petition says that ' to the best of 
his knowledge and belief his scheme is altogether 
new, and does not interfere with the inventions of 
either of the other gentlemen who have apphed to 
your honourable body for an exclusive right of navi- 
gating by means of steam.' The petitioner adds that 
he ' had made an exact draught of the ditferent parts 
of his machine, which, with an explanation thereof, 
he is ready to exhibit.' The prayer of the petition 
was unsuccessful ; but these draughts should be among 
the papers of the late Colonel Stevens, and at this day 
would be curious. 

" Mr. Stevens, meanwhile, never renounced his ex- 
periments, nor despaired of success; and in 1804 he 
actually constructed a propeller (a small open boat, 
worked by steam), with such decided success that 
he was encouraged to go on and build the ' Phoenix ' 
steamboat, on his own plan and model, and had her 
ready almost contemporaneously with, but a little 
after, the first steamboat of Fulton, the ^ Clermont.' 
The success of the ' Clermont ' entitled Mr. Fulton 
and Chancellor Livingston, who was co-operating with 



124 ROBERT FULTON. 

Fulton, to the benefit of the law, which had been re- 
vived by the State of New York, granted a monopoly 
of the waters of the State, and thus Mr. Stevens's 
steamboat was excluded from those waters. On the 
Delaware, however, and on the Connecticut, he placed 
boats ; and his eminent son, Robert L. Stevens, hav- 
ing embraced his father's views, was now at work with 
him to improve the known, and invent new resources 
for accelerated steam conveyance." 

While Fulton was still abroad, John Fitch and 
Oliver Evans were pursuing a similar course of experi- 
ment, as were his contemporaries on the other side 
the Atlantic, and with more success. Fitch had made 
a number of fairly successful ventures, and had shown 
beyond question that the project of applying steam 
to ship-propulsion was a promising one ; and he had 
only failed through lack of financial backing, and ina- 
bihty to appreciate the amount of power that must be 
employed to give his boats any considerable speed. 
Evans had made his " Oruktor AmphiboHs," — a flat- 
bottomed vessel which he built at his works in Phila- 
delphia, and impelled by its own engines, on wheels, 
to the bank of the Schuylkill, and then afloat, down 
the stream to its berth, by paddle-wheels driven by 
the same engines. Other inventors were working on 
both sides the ocean with apparently good reason to 
hope for success, and the times evidently were ripe 
for the man who should best combine all the require- 
ments in a single experiment. The man to do this 
was Fulton. 

He had made his own preliminary trials on the 



THE '' CLERMONTr 1 25 

Seine, and had there learned how to proceed to make 
a better steamer later \ he had undoubtedly kept him- 
self informed of what was being done by his rivals in 
Great Britain, as in France and the United States, as 
well as the imperfect facilities for communication of 
the beginning of the nineteenth century permitted ; 
he had the natural talent of the inventor, the skill and 
training of the engineer, and was now backed by men 
of capital and sagacity, who had also that essential of 
final success, political power, and influence, 

Fulton's experiments on the Seine so far encour- 
aged him that, with the approval of Livingston, he 
immediately wrote to the firm of Boulton & Watt, in 
England, the builders of the engines of James Watt, 
then the junior member of the firm, and ordered 
an engine of which he gave them the dimensions and 
design, but which he did not inform them was to be 
used in steam-navigation. This engine was to be at 
once built and shipped to the United States, whither 
Fulton had decided to at once return. He himself 
went to England before returning to the United States, 
and, it is presumed, there saw the builders of his 
engine, and instructed them as to the details of its 
construction for adaptation to his purposes. It was 
very slowly constructed, however; and it was not 
until about the time of his own arrival at New York 
that it was received and made ready for its work. 
The boat was finally built and fitted with these en- 
gines, and at the expense of Fulton himself, who 
could find no one at the time ready to assume a por- 
tion of the, to him, somewhat costly outfit. Living- 



126 ROBERT FULTON. 

ston seems to have remained behind, and to have 
left the whole burden to be borne by Fulton. 

Immediately on his arrival, in the winter of 1806-7, 
Fulton started on his boat, selecting Charles Brown 
as the builder, a well-known ship-builder of that time, 
and the builder of many of Fulton's later steam-vessels. 
The hull of this steamer, which was the first to estab- 
lish a regular route and regular transportation of pas- 
sengers and merchandise in America, — Fulton's first 
^ boat in his native country, — was 133 feet long, 18 feet 
beam, and 7 feet depth of hold. The engine was of 
24 inches diameter of cylinder, 4 feet stroke of piston ; 
and its boiler was 20 feet long, 7 feet high, and 8 feet 
wide. The tonnage was computed at 160. After its 
first season, its operation having satisfied all concerned 
of the promise of the venture, its hull was lengthened . 
to 140 feet, and widened to 16-J- feet, thus being com- 
pletely rebuilt ; while its engines were altered in a 
number of details, Fulton furnishing the drawings 
for the alterations. Two more boats, the " Raritan " 
and the " Car of Neptune " were added to form 
the fleet of 1807, and steam-navigation was at last 
fairly begun in America, some years in advance of its 
establishment in Europe. The Legislature were so 
• much impressed with this result that they promptly 
\ extended the monopoly previously given Fulton and 
V Livingston, adding five years for every boat to be 
built and set in operation, up to a maximum not to 
exceed a total of thirty years. 

The " Clermont," as Fulton called this first boat, 
was begun in the winter of 1806-7, and launched in 



THE '' CLERMONTr , 127 

the spring ; the machinery was at once put on board, 
and in August, 1807, the craft was ready for the trial- 
trip. The boat was promptly started on her proposed 
trip to Albany and made the run with perfect success. 
Fulton's own account is as follows : — 

To THE Editor of the "American Citizen." 

Sir, — I arrived this afternoon at four o'clock, in 
the steamboat from Albany. As the success of my 
experiment gives me great hopes that such boats may 
be rendered of great importance to my country, to 
prevent erroneous opinions and give some satisfac- 
tion to my friends of useful improvements, you will 
have the goodness to publish the following statement 
of facts : — 

I left New York on Monday at one o'clock, and 
arrived at Clermont, the seat of Chancellor Living- 
ston, at one o'clock on Tuesday : time, twenty-four 
hours ; distance, one hundred and ten miles. On 
Wednesday I departed from the Chancellor's at nine 
in the morning, and arrived at Albany at five in the 
afternoon : distance, forty miles ; time, eight hours. 
The sum is one hundred and fifty miles in thirty-two 
hours, — equal to near five miles an hour. 

On Thursday, at nine o'clock in the morning, I left 
Albany, and arrived at the Chancellor's at six in the 
evening. I started from thence at seven, and arrived 
at New York at four in the afternoon : time, thirty 
hours ; space run through, one hundred and fifty 
miles, equal to five miles an hour. Throughout my 
whole way, both going and returning, the wind was 
ahead. No advantage could be derived from my 



128 ROBERT FULTON. 

sails. The whole has therefore been performed by 
the power of the steam-engine. 

I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

Robert Fulton. 

Fulton gives the following account of the same voy- 
age in a letter to his friend, Mr. Barlow : — 

" My steamboat voyage to Albany and back has 
turned out rather more favourably than I had calcu- . 
lated. The distance from New York to Albany is one 
hundred and fifty miles. I ran it up in thirty-two 
hours, and down in thirty. I had a light breeze 
against me the whole way, both going and coming, 
and the voyage has been performed wholly by the 
power of the steam-engine. I overtook many sloops 
and schooners beating to windward, and parted with 
them as if they had been at anchor. 

" The power of propelling boats by steam is now 
fully proved. The morning I left New York, there 
were not perhaps thirty persons in the city who be- 
lieved that the boat would ever move one mile an 
hour, or be of the least utility ; and while we were 
putting off from the wharf, which was crowded with 
spectators, I heard a number of sarcastic remarks. 
This is the way in which ignorant men compUment 
what they call philosophers and projectors. 

" Having employed much time, money, and zeal in 
accomplishing this work, it gives me, as it will you, 
great pleasure to see it answer my expectations. It 
will give a cheap and quick conveyance to the mer- 
chandise on the Mississippi, Missouri, and other great 
rivers, which are now laying open their treasures to 



THE '' CLERMONTr 129 

the enterprise of our countrymen ; and, although the 
prospect of personal emolument has been some m- 
ducement to me, yet I feel infinitely more pleasure in 
reflecting on the immense advantage my country will 
derive from the invention," ^ etc. 

Professor Renwick, describing the "Clermont" of 
1807 as she appeared on her first trip, says : " She was 
very unlike any of her successors, and very dissimilar 
from the shape in which she appeared a few months 
afterward. With a model resembling a Long Island 
skiff, she was decked for a short distance at stem and 
stern. The engine was open to view, and from the 
engine aft a house like that of a canal-boat was raised 
to cover the boiler and the apartment for the officers. 
There were no wheel-guards. The rudder was of the 
shape used in sailing-vessels, and moved by a tiller. 
The boiler was of the form then used in Watt's en- 
gines, and was set in masonry. The condenser was 
of the size used habitually m land engmes, and stood, 
as was the practice in them, in a large cold-watei 
cistern. The weight of the masonry and the great 
capacity of the cold-water cistern diminished very 
materially the buoyancy of the vessel. The rudder 
had so little power that she could hardly be managed. 
The skippers of the river craft, who at once saw that 
their business was doomed, took advantage of the un- 
wieldiness of the vessel to run foul of her as soon as 
they thought they had the law on their side. Thus, 
in several instances, the steamer reached one or the 
other termini of the route with but a single wheel." 
1 Reigart, p. 173- 

9 / 



130 ROBERT FULTON. 

The "American Citizen" of August 17, 1807, 

says : — 

" Mr. Fulton's ingenious steamboat, invented with 
a view to the navigation of the Mississippi, from New 
Orleans upward, sails to-day from the North River, 
near State's Prison, to Albany. The velocity of the 
steamboat is calculated at four miles an hour. It is 
said it will make a progress of two against the current 



Fig. 15. — The "Clermont," 1807. 

of the Mississippi, and if so it will certainly be a very 
valuable acquisition to the commerce of Western 
States." 

What would this sanguine editor have thought, had 
he been assured that the " Clermont " was the pioneer 
of a fleet that should include steamships of ten thou- 
sand tons, or even — as the " Great Eastern," — of 
thirty thousand tons displacement; ships that should 
make a speed of twenty miles an hour at sea ; small 
torpedo boats carrying out the idea of Fulton, and 
pursuing their enemy with their destructive little 



THE " CLERMONT:' 



131 



weapons at speeds approaching thirty miles an hour ; 
and river boats passing over the very route chosen 
for Fulton's first trial-trip at the speed of twenty-seven 
miles an hour, and at their *' slow speeds," running 
from New York to Albany in ten hours or less? 
What would he have thought, had he dreamed of 
steaming from New York to Newport, to Fall River, 
or to Providence in ten to twelve hours ? Of going 
from St. Louis to New Orleans in four days? Of 
crossing the Atlantic in six? 




Fig. 16. — Engine of the "Clermont," 1S08. 



The engine of the *' Clermont" (Figure 16), as 
already seen, was similar to that of Fulton's French 
boat, and of rather peculiar construction, the piston, 
E, being coupled to the crank-shaft, O, by a bell-crank, 
I H P, and a connecting-rod, P Q, the paddle-wheel 
shaft, M N, being separate from the crank-shaft, and 
connected with the latter by gearing, O O. The 
paddle-wheels had buckets four feet long, with a dip 
of two feet. 

The voyage of the " Clermont " to Albany was 
attended by some ludicrous incidents. Mr. Colden 
says that she was described " as a monster, moving 



132 ROBERT FULTON. 

on the waters, defying wind and tide, and breathing 
flames and smoke." 

This boat used dry pine wood for fuel, and the 
flames rose to a considerable distance above the 
smoke-pipe ; and mingled smoke and sparks rose high 
in the air. "This uncommon light first attracted the 
attention of the crews of other vessels. Notwith- 
standing the wind and tide were averse to its ap- 
proach, they saw with astonishment that it was rapidly 
coming toward them ; and when it came so near that 
the noise of the machinery and paddles was heard, 
the crews (if what was said in the newspapers of the 
time be true) in some instances shrank beneath their 
decks from the terrific sight, and left their vessels to 
go on shore ; while others prostrated themselves, and 
besought Providence to protect them from the ap- 
proach of the horrible monster which was marching 
on the tides, and lighting its path by the fires which 
it vomited." 

Fulton used several of the now familiar features of 
the American river boat, and subsequently introduced 
others. 

The success of the " Clermont " on the trial-trip 
was such that Fulton soon after advertised the vessel as 
a regular passenger boat between New York and Albany. 

A newspaper- slip in the scrap-book of the Author 
has the following : — 

" The traveller of to-day, as he goes on board the 
great steamboats ' St. John ' or ' Drew,' can scarcely 
imagine the difference between such floating palaces 



THE " CLERMONTr 133 

and the wee-bit punts on which our fathers were 
wafted sixty years ago. We may, however, get some 
idea of the sort of thing then in use by a perusal of 
the steamboat announcements of that time two of 
which are as follows : — 

" * September 2, 1S07. 

" '■ The North River Steamboat will leave Pauler's 
Hook Ferry [now Jersey City] on Friday, the 4th of 
September, at 9 in the morning, and arrive at Albany 
on Saturday, at 9 in the afternoon. Provisions, good 
berths, and accommodations are provided. 

" * The charge to each passenger is as follows : 

" ' To Newburg . . dels. 3, time, 14 hours, 
" Pouo^hkeepsie . " 4, " 17 " 



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" * For places, apply to William Vandervoort, No. 48 
Courtlandt Street, on the corner of Greenwich Street.^ 

" '■ Mr. Fulton's new-invented Steamboat, which is 
fitted up in a neat style for passengers, and is intended 
to run from New York to Albany as a Packet, left 
here this morning with 90 passengers, against a strong 
head-wind. Notwithstanding which, it was judged 
she moved through the waters at the rate of six miles 
an hour.' " ^ 



1 Copy of an advertisement taken from the " Albany Ga- 
zette," dated September, 1807. 

2 Extract from the " New York Evening Post," dated Oc- 
tober 2, 1807. 



134 ROBERT FULTON. 

During the next winter the " Clermont " was re- 
paired and enlarged, and in the summer of 1808 was 
again on the route to Albany; and, meantime, the 
two new steamboats, the " Raritan " and the " Car 
of Neptune," had been built. In the year 181 1 
Fulton built the " Paragon." 

Fulton patented novel details in steam-engines and 
steam-vessels in 181 1, and thus secured some val- 
uable property, though by no means sufficient to in- 
sure control of his routes. This he retained for a few 
years; but up to 18 12, at least, there were continual 
attempts to estabHsh rival Hnes, and vessels of all 
kinds, driven by engines of all sorts, practicable and 
impracticable, were built or proposed by ambitious in- 
ventors and " grasping capitaHsts." In the winter of 
181 2 an injunction was obtained from the courts in 
such terms that a perpetual injunction could be served 
on all the opposition lines, and Fulton was for a brief 
period allowed to pursue his own course in peace. 
A number of boats were now built for the rapidly 
increasing traffic of the rivers of the United States, 
and he placed some even on the " Father of Waters," 
where he fulfilled the prediction of his unfortunate 
predecessor, Fitch, whose remains now lie quietly 
beside one of its tributaries. 

The table presented on page 135, given by his first 
biographer, shows the number and the principal di- 
mensions of the boats built by Fulton, or from his 
plans, including the last three, which, though built 
after his death, are the most satisfactory of all. 



THE '' clermont: 



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a. 



136 ROBERT FULTON. 

*' Steam," says the " Gentleman's Magazine " for 
December, 1809, "has been applied in America to 
the purpose of inland navigation with the greatest 
success. The passage boat between New York and 
Albany is one hundred and sixty feet long, and wide 
in proportion for accommodations, consisting of fifty- 
two berths, besides sofas, etc., for one hundred pas- 
sengers ; and the machine which moves her wheels is 
equal to the power of twenty-four horses, and is kept 
in motion by steam from a copper boiler eight or ten 
feet in length. Her route is a distance of one hun- 
dred and fifty miles, which she performs regularly 
twice a week, and sometimes in the short space of 
thirty- two hours." An amazing tale ! 

According to Golden, the last boat which was con- 
structed under Mr. Fulton's directions, and according 
to drawings and plans furnished by him, is that which, 
in 18 1 6, navigated the sound from New York to New 
Haven. She was of nearly four hundred tons burden, 
built of uncommon strength, and fitted up with all 
conveniences and great elegance. She was the first 
steamboat with a round bottom like a sea- going ship. 
This form was adopted, because, for a great part of 
the route, she would be as much exposed as on the 
ocean. It was therefore, necessary, to make her a 
good sea-boat. She passed daily, and at all times 
of the tide, the then dangerous strait of Hell-Gate 
where, for a mile, she frequently encountered a cur- 
rent running at the rate of five or six miles an hour. 
For some distance she had within a few yards, on 
each side, rocks and whirlpools which rivalled Scylla 



THE ''CLERMONT:' 137 

and Charybdis, even as they are poetically described. 
This passage, previously to its being navigated by this 
steamer, was supposed to be impassable except at the 
change of the tide ; and many shipwrecks had been 
occasioned by a mistake in time. '■'■ The boat passing 
through these whirlpools with rapidity, while the angry 
waters foamed against her bows, and appeared to 
raise themselves in obstinate resistance to her pas- 
sage, is a proud triumph of human ingenuity. The 
owners, as the highest tribute they had in their power 
to offer to his genius, and as an evidence of the grati- 
tude they owed him, called her the *' Fulton." ^ 

A steam ferry-boat was built to ply between New 
York and Jersey City in 181 2, and the next year two 
others, to connect with Brooklyn. These were " twin- 
boats " the two hulls being connected by a " bridge " 
or deck common to both. The Jersey ferry was 
crossed in fifteen minutes, the distance being a mile 
and a half. Fulton's boat carried, at one load, eight 
carriages, and about thirty horses, and still had room 
for three hundred or four hundred foot-passengers. 

Fulton's description of one of these boats is as 
follows : — 

" She is built of two boats, each ten feet beam, 
eighty feet long, and five feet deep in the hold ; which 
boats are distant from each other ten feet, confined 
by strong transverse beam-knees and diagonal traces, 
forming a deck thirty feet wide and eighty feet long. 
The propelling water-wheel is placed between the 
boats to prevent it from injury from ice and shocks on 

1 Colden's Life of Fulton, p. igo. 



138 ROBERT FULTON: 

entering or approaching the dock. The whole of the 
machinery being placed between the two boats, leaves 
ten feet on the deck of each boat for carriages, horses 
and cattle, etc. ; the other, having neat benches and 
covered with an awning, is for passengers, and there 
is also a passage and stairway to a neat cabin, which is 
fifty feet long and five feet clear from the floor to the 
beams, furnished with benches, and provided with a 
stove in winter. Although the two boats and space 
between them gives thirty feet beam, yet they present 
sharp bows to the water, and have only the resistance 
in the water of one boat of twenty beam. Both ends 
being alike, and each having a rudder, she never puts 
about." ^ 

Meantime, the War of 181 2 was in progress, and 
Fulton designed a steam vessel-of-war, which was then 
considered a wonderfully formidable craft. Fulton 
proposed to build a vessel capable of carrying a heavy 
battery, and of steaming four miles an hour. The 
ship was fitted with furnaces for red-hot shot, and 
some of her guns were to be discharged below the 
water-line. The estimated cost was ^320,000. The 
construction of the vessel was authorized by Congress 
in March, 1814; the keel was laid June 20, 1814, 
and the vessel was launched October 29 of the same 
year. 

The " Fulton the First," as she was called, was then 
considered an enormous vessel. The hull was double, 
156 feet long, 56 feet wide, and 20 feet deep, measur- 
ing 2,475 tons. In May the ship was ready for her en- 

1 Preble, page 59. 



THE ''CLERMONT." ' 139 

gine, and in July was so far completed as to steam, on 
a trial-trip, to the ocean at Sandy Hook and back, 53 
miles, in eight hours and twenty minutes. In Septem- 
ber, with armament and stores on board, the ship made 
for sea and for battle ; the same route was traversed, 
the vessel making 5 J miles an hour. Her engine, 
having a steam-cylinder 48 inches in diameter and of 
5 feet stroke of piston, was furnished with steam by a 
copper boiler 22 feet long, 12 feet wide, and 8 feet 
high, and turned a wheel, between the two hulls, 16 
feet in diameter, with "buckets" 14 feet long, and a 
dip of 4 feet. The sides were 4 feet 10 inches thick, 
and her spar-deck was surrounded by musket-proof 
bulwarks. The armament consisted of 30 3 2 -pound- 
ers, intended to discharge red-hot shot. There was 
one mast for each hull, fitted with lateen sails. Large 
pumps were carried, intended to throw streams of 
water on the decks of the enemy, with a view to dis- 
abling him by wetting his ordnance and ammunition. 
A submarine gun was to have been carried at each 
bow, to discharge shot weighing one hundred pounds, 
at a depth of ten feet below water. 

This, for the time, tremendous engine-of-war was 
constructed in response to a demand from the citizens 
of New York for a means of harbour defence. They 
appointed what was called a Coast and Harbour 
Defence Committee ; and this committee examined 
Fulton's plans, and called the attention of the General 
Government to them. The Government appointed a 
Board of Experts from among its most famous naval 
officers, including Commodore Decatur, Captains 



I40 . ROBERT FULTON. 

Paul Jones, Evans, and Biddle, Commodore Perry^ 
and Captains Warrington and Lewis. They reported 
unanimously in favour of the proposed construction, 
and set forth her advantages over all previously known 
forms of war- vessel. The citizens' committee offered 
to guarantee the expense of building the ship ; and 
the construction was undertaken under the supervision 
of a committee appointed for the purpose, consisting 
of several then distinguished men, both military and 
naval. Congress authorized the building of coast- 
defence vessels by the President, in March, 1814, 
and Fulton at once started the work of construction, 
Messrs. Adam and Noah Brown building the hull, 
and the engines being placed on board and in work- 
ing order within a year. 

The death of Fulton took place in the year 18 15, 
while in the height of his fame and of his usefulness. 
He had been called to Trenton, New Jersey, in Jan- 
uary of that year, to give testimony before the State 
legislature in reference to the proposed repeal of 
laws which had interfered with the operation of the 
ferry-boats and other steam-vessels plying between the 
city of New York and the New Jersey shore. It hap- 
^ pened that the weather was cold, he was exposed to 
its severity both at Trenton and, especially, crossing 
the Hudson River on his return, and took a cold from 
which he never recovered. He became apparently 
convalescent after a few days ; but insisted on visiting 
the new steam-frigate too soon, to inspect work in 
progress there, and on his return home experienced 
a relapse, — his ilhiess finally resulting in his death, 



THE " Clermont:' 141 

February 24, 181 5. He left a wife {^lee Harriet 
Livingston) and four children, three of whom were 
daughters. 

Robert Fulton died in the service of the United 
States government ; and although engaged for years 
in devoting time and talents to the best interests of 
our country, still the public records show that the 
Government was indebted to his estate upwards of 
^100,000 for moneys actually expended and services 
rendered by him, agreeably to contract.- 

When the legislature, then in session at Albany, 
heard of the death of Mr. Fulton, they expressed G- 
their sentiments of regret by resolving that the mem- 
bers of both houses should wear mourning for six 
weeks. 

This is the only instance, according to Golden, up 
to that time, of such public testimonials of regret, 
esteem, and respect being offered on the death of a 
private citizen, who was only distinguished by his 
virtues, his genius, and his talents. 

He was buried February 25, 18 15. His funeral 
was attended by all the officers of the National and 
State governments then in the city, by the magis- 
tracy, the common council, a number of societies, 
and a greater number of citizens than had ever been 
collected on any similar occasion. When the pro- 
cession began to move, and until it arrived at Trinity 
Church, minute-guns were fired from the steam-frigate 
and the Battery. His body is deposited in a vault 
belonging to the Livingston family. 

1 Reigart, p. 203. 



^^- 



142 ROBERT FULTON. 



Mr. Fulton is described as a tall man, about six 
feet in height, slender, but well proportioned. " Na- 
ture had made him a gentleman, and bestowed upon 
him ease and gracefulness." He had too much good 
sense to exhibit affectation, and confidence in his 
own worth and talents gave him a pleasing deport- 
ment in all companies. His features were strong and 
V handsome ; he had large dark eyes, a projecting 
brow, and features expressive of intelligence and 
thought ; his disposition was mild yet lively, and he 
was fond of society. He conversed with energy, 
fluency, and correctness ; and, owing more to expe- 
rience and reflection than to books, he was often 
interesting in his originality. 

In all his social relations he was kind, generous, 
and affectionate. His only use for money was to 
make it an aid to charity, hospitality, and the pro- 
motion of science. He was especially distinguished 
by constancy, industry, and that union of patience 
and persistence which overcame every difficulty. 

Robert Fulton has never, even yet, received either 
in kind or degree the credit that is justly his due. 
Those members of the engineering profession who 
have become familiar with his work through the ordi- 
nary channels of information generally look upon 
him as a talented artist and fortunate amateur en- 
gineer, whose fancies led him into many strange 
vagaries, and whose enthusiastic advocacy of a new 
method of transportation — the success of which was 
already assured by the ingenuity and skill of James 
Watt, Oliver Evans, and John Fitch, and by the really 



THE '' Clermont:' 143 

intelligent methods of those early professional engi- 
neers, the Messrs. Stevens — gave him the oppor- 
tunity of grasping the prize of which Chancellor 
Livingston had secured the legal control. By such 
engineers as know only of his work on the Seine and 
the Hudson in the introduction of the steamboat, he 
is not considered as an inventor, but simply as one 
who profited by the inventions of others, and who, 
taking advantage of circumstances, and gaining credit 
which was not of right wholly his own, acquired a 
reputation vastly out of proportion to his real merits. 

The layman, judging only from the popular tradi- 
tions, and the incomplete historical accounts that 
have come to him, supposes Robert Fulton to have 
been the inventor of the steamboat, and on that 
ground regards him as one of the greatest mechanics 
and engineers that the world has seen. 

The truth undoubtedly is, as we have now seen, 
that Fulton was not " the inventor of the steamboat," 
and that the reputation acquired by his successful 
introduction of steam-navigation is largely accidental, 
and is principally due to the possession, in company 
with Livingston, of a monopoly which drove from 
this most promising field those original and skilful 
engineers, Evans and the Stevenses. No one of the 
essential devices successfully used by Fulton in the 
''Clermont," his first North River steamboat, was 
new; and no one of them differed, to any great 
extent, from devices successfully adopted by earher 
experimenters. Fulton's success was a commercial 
success purely. John Stevens had, in 1804, built a 



144 ROBERT FULTON. 

successful screw steam-vessel ; and his paddle- steamer 
of 1807, the "Phoenix," was very possibly a better 
piece of engineering than the "Clermont." John 
Fitch had, still earlier, used both screw and paddle. 
In England, Miller and Symmington and Lord Dun- 
das had antedated even Fulton's earliest experiments 
on the Seine. Indeed, it seems not at all unlikely 
that Papin, a century earlier (in 1707), had he been 
given a monopoly of steam-navigation on the Weser 
or the Fulda, and had he been joyfully hailed by the 
Hanoverians as a public benefactor, as was Fulton in 
the United States, instead of being proscribed and 
assaulted by the mob who destroyed his earlier " Cler- 
mont," might have been equally successful ; or it may 
be that the French inventor, Jouffroy, who experi- 
mented on the rivers of France twenty-five years 
before Fulton, might, with similar encouragement, 
have gained an equal success. 

Yet although Fulton was not in any true sense 
" the inventor of the steamboat," his services in the 
work of introducing that miracle of our modern time 
cannot be overestimated ; and, aside .from his claim 
as the first to grasp success among the many who were 
then bravely struggling to place steam-navigation on 
a permanent and safe basis, he is undeniably entitled 
to all the praise that has ever been accorded him on 
such different ground. 

It is to Robert Fullon that we owe the fact that 
to-day the rivers of our own country, and those of 
the world as well, are traversed by steamers of all 
sizes and all kinds, and by boats suited to every kind 



THE '' CLERMONTr 145 

of traffic ; that the ocean floats, in every cHme and 
in all its harbours, fleets of great steamers, transport- 
ing passengers and merchandise from the United 
States to Europe, from Liverpool to Hong-Kong, from 
London to Melbourne, traversing the " doldrums " as 
steadily and safely and as rapidly as the regions of 
the trades or either temperate zone. Steam-naviga- 
tion without Fulton would undoubtedly have become 
an established fact ; but no one can say how long the 
world, without that great engineer and statesman, 
would have been compelled to wait, or how much the 
progress of the world might have been retarded by 
his failure, had it occurred. The name of Fulton 
well deserves to be coupled with those of Newcomen 
and Watt, the inventors of the steam-engine ; with 
those of George and Robert Stephenson, the builders 
of the railway ; and with those of Morse and Bell, 
who have given us the telegraph and the telephone. 



10 



146 ROBERT FULTON 



VII. 

RIVER AND OCEAN STEAM- FLEETS. 

While Robert Fulton and his rivals in the United 
States were thus bringing into fruition the dreams of 
a century, inventors in other parts of the world were 
by no means idle. In Great Britain, Miller, Taylor, 
Symmington, and Lord Dundas had set an example 
which was well emulated by Henry Bell, of Glasgow, 
in 1 81 2, when he built the "Comet" at Greenock, 
on the Clyde, — the first passenger steamer constructed 
in Europe. The boat was laid down in 181 1, and 
completed Jan, 18, 181 2, and proved to be a success. 
It was of 30 tons burden, 40 feet long, 10 feet beam, 
and driven by two pairs of paddle-wheels, worked by 
engines rated at but three horse-power. 

Bell's boat was advertised as a passenger boat, to 
leave Greenock on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fri- 
days, for Glasgow, twenty-four miles distant, returning 
Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. The fare was 
made " four shillings for the best cabin, and three 
shillings for the second." It was some months be- 
fore the vessel became considered a trustworthy 
means of conveyance. 

Bell constructed several boats in 181 5, and with 
his success steam-navigation in Great Britain was 
fairly inaugurated. In 18 14 there were five steamers. 



RIVER AND OCEAN STEAM-FLEETS. i47 

all Scotch, regularly working in British waters. In 
1820 there were thirty-four, — one half of which were 
in England, fourteen in Scotland, and the remainder 
in Ireland. Twenty years later, at the close of the 
period to which this chapter is especially devoted, 
there were about thirteen hundred and twenty-five 
steam- vessels in that kingdom, of which about a thou- 
sand were English, and two hundred and fifty Scotch. 1 

During this period the introduction of the steam- 
boat on the great rivers of the United States was one 
of the most notable events of history. Inaugurated 
by Evans, the building of steam-vessels once begun, 
never ceased ; and not long after Fitch's burial on the 
bank of the Ohio, his last wish — that he might lie 
^^ where the song of the boatman would enliven the 
stillness of his resting-place, and the music of the 
steam-engine soothe his spirit" — was fulfilled. 

Nicholas J. Roosevelt was the first to take a steam- 
boat down the Ohio and Mississippi. His boat was 
built at Pittsburgh in 181 1 from Fulton's plans. It was 
called the "New Orleans," of about two hundred tons 
burden, and was propelled by a stern-wheel, assisted, 
at times, by sails on two masts. The hull was 138 
feet long, and 30 feet beam. The cost of the boat, 
including engines, was about ^40,000. The builder, 
with his family, an engineer, a pilot, and six " deck- 
hands," left Pittsburgh in October, 181 1, reached 
Louisville in seventy hours (about ten miles an hour), 
and New Orleans in fourteen days, steaming from 
Natchez. 

The next steamers built on Western waters were 

1 Thurston's History of the Steam-Engine, p. 249. 



148 ROBERT FULTON. 

probably the "Comet" and the "Vesuvius." The 
" Comet " was finally laid aside, and the engine used 
to drive a saw-mill \ and the "' Vesuvius " was destroyed 
by the explosion of her boilers. In 181 3 there were 
two shops at Pittsburgh building steam-engines, and it 
is stated that as early as 1840 there were a thousand 
steamers on the Mississippi and its tributaries. 
^ In the " Washington " (built at Wheeling, Va., in 

18 1 6, by Capt. H. M. Shreve) the boilers, previously 
placed in the hold, were carried on the main-deck, 
and a " hurricane-deck " was built over them. Two 
horizontal direct-acting engines were adopted instead 
of the single upright engine used by Fulton, and were 
driven by high-pressure steam without condensation. 
The engines, one on each side of the boat, were at- 
tached to cranks placed at right angles. He adopted 
a cam cut-off, and the flue-boiler of Evans, At that 
time the voyage to New Orleans from Louisville occu- 
pied three weeks, and Shreve was made the subject 
of many witticisms when he predicted that the time 
would be shortened to ten days. It is now made in 
four days.^ 

The death of Fulton left the work of introduction 
of the steamboat on the rivers of the country in the 
hands of others no less able and enterprising than he ; 
and the expiration or repeal of the provisions giving 
the monopoly of steam-navigation on the Hudson to 
his company permitted them to proceed with their 
plans undisturbed. The courts ruled, finally, that 
only the General Government could control the navi- 
gation of tide-waters and navigable rivers communi- 

1 Thurston's History of the Steam-Engine, p. 249. 



RIVER AND OCEAN STEAM-FLEETS. 149 

eating directly with the sea ; the provisions for reward- 
ing inventors by a patent-system covering the whole 
country and administered by the United States patent 
office gave good reason for withdrawing the special 
laws previously sustained by the several States, for giv- 
ing this kind of monopoly, where legal, even; and 
the whole river-system of the country was open to all. 

The steam-navigation of the Hudson soon fell 
largely into the hands of the Stevens, father and sons ; 
and they, mainly through the ingenuity and skill of 
Robert L. Stevens,^ soon established what has come 
to be recognized as a peculiarly admirable type of 
craft for these long inland routes. 

Referring to his valuable services, President King, 
then of Columbia College, who seems to have been 
the first to appreciate the original invention ^and the 
excellence of the engineering of this family, in a lec- 
ture delivered in New York, in 185 1, gave a connected 
and probably accurate description of their work. 

Young Stevens began working in his father's 
machine-shop when a mere boy, and acquired at a 
very early age familiarity with details of work and of 
business. It was he who introduced the " hollow 
water-line" in the ''Phoenix." In the same vessel 
he adopted a feathering paddle-wheel and the guard- 
beam now universally seen in river steamboats. 

The "Philadelphia" was built in 181 3, and the 

1 The Author has compiled a memorandum of the work of 
this remarkable engineer, the perusal of which may give some 
idea of the ingenuity and versatility of his talents. See the 
Journal of the Franklin Institute, 1874. 



150 ROBERT FULTON. 

young engineer introduced several new devices, includ- 
ing screw-bolts in place of " tree-nails," and diagonal 
knees. Two years later he altered the engines, and 
arranged them to work steam expansively. A little 
later he began using anthracite coal. Stevens was 
the first of whom we have record who was thor- 
oughly successful in using the new fuel. Mr. R. L. 
Stevens's labours and inventions in mechanics, should 
have more fitting commemoration than can be given 
in any passing notice. Of some of them the follow- 
ing is the chronological record : — 

1808. Hollow or concave water-lines in the bow 
were introduced for the first time in the steamboat 
''Phoenix;" these lines, under the name of "wave 
lines," are now claimed as a recent application. On 
the same vessel, in 1809, he first used the feathering- 
wheel with vertical buckets on pivots. 

1809. He suspended the guard-beam by iron 
rods from above, as is now universally done in river 
steamers. 

18 1 3-14. The war with England being in prog- 
ress, he invented the elongated shell, to be fired from 
ordinary cannon. Having perfected this invention, 
he sold the secret to the United States, after experi- 
ments so decisive as to leave no doubt of the efficacy 
of such projectiles. In one of these experiments 
made at Governor's Island in the presence of officers 
of the army, a target of white oak, four feet thick, was 
completely destroyed by a shell weighing two hundred 
pounds and containing thirteen pounds of powder; 
the opening made was large enough, as the certificate 



RIVER AND OCEAN STEAM-FLEETS. 15 1 

of the officer commanding, Colonel House, stated, for 
a man and horse to enter. 

These shells were said to be free from the danger 
accompanying ordinary shells, for they were hermeti- 
cally sealed. Some, after being kept twenty-five years, 
were tested by exploding gmipowder under them, and 
then taken to high places and let fall on rocks below, 
without causing them to explode. After this they 
were plunged into water, and finally being put into 
the gun, were fired, and upon striking, exploded with 
devastating effect. 

1 8 13. First to fasten planks and braces of steam- 
boats with screw-bolts, and to place diagonal knees 
inside. 

1 8 15. First to use steam expansively in the 
"Philadelphia." 

181 8. First to burn anthracite coal in a cupola 
furnace, and subsequently to introduce this fuel in 
steamers, — the " Passaic " being the earliest. 

1822. He made the skeleton wrought-iron walk- 
ing-beam now in general use. 

1824. First to place the boilers on the guards, 
and to divide the buckets on the wheel. 

1827. First, on steamboat "North America," to 
apply artificial blast to the furnace, and in the same 
boat to apply what is technically known as the " hog- 
frame," consisting of large timbers along the sides, to 
prevent the boat from being " hogged." 

1828. First to apply steel spring bearings, under 
the centre of the paddle-shaft of the steamer " New 
Philadelphia." 



1 5 2 ROBER T FUL TON. 

1832. First to introduce perfectly balanced valves, 
which enabled one man to work the largest engine 
with ease. In the same year he used braces to the 
connecting-rod, thus preventing its tremulous motion. 

1832-33. Constructed a boat capable of navigat- 
ing through heavy ice. In the same year he intro- 
duced tubular boilers. 

1 840. Improved the packing of pistons for steam- 
engines by using the pressure of steam to retain the 
packing- ring against the surface of the cylinder. 

1 84 1. The Stevens Cut-off, by means of main 
valves worked by two eccentrics, invented by R. L. 
Stevens and his nephew F. B. Stevens. In the same 
year he invented and applied on the Camden and 
Amboy railroad the double-slide cut-off for locomo- 
tives and large engines, and improved locomotives 
by using eight wheels, and with increased adhesion 
was enabled to turn short curves with little friction on 
the flanges; also used anthracite as a fuel to great 
advantage on the heavy engines. 

1842. Having contracted to build for the United 
States government a large war- steamer, shot and shell 
proof, R. L. Stevens built a steamboat at Bordentown 
for the sole purpose of experimenting on the forms 
and curves of propeller-blades, as compared with side- 
wheels, and continued his experiments for many 
months. While occupied with this design he invented 
about 1844, and took a patent for, a mode of turning 
a steamship of war by means of a cross propeller near 
the stern, so that if one battery were disabled, she 
might promptly present the other. 



RIVER AND OCEAN STEAM-FLEETS, 153 

1848. This year he succeeded in advantageously 
using anthracite in fast passenger locomotives. 

1849 witnessed the successful application of air 
under the bottom of steamer ''John Neilson," where- 
by friction is so much diminished, that she actually 
attained, as stated by President King, the speed of 
twenty miles an hour. This was the invention of 
R. L. Stevens and F. B. Stevens. 

The name of Robert L. Stevens will long be remem- 
bered as that of one of the greatest of American 
mechanics, the most intelligent of naval architects, 
and as the first, and one of the greatest, of those to 
whom we are indebted for the beginning of the 
mightiest of revolutions in the methods and imple- 
ments of modern naval warfare. American mechani- 
cal genius and engineering skill have rarely been too 
promptly recognized, and no excuse will be required 
for an attempt (which it is hoped may yet be made) 
to place such splendid work as that of the Messrs. 
Stevens in a light which shall reveal both its variety 
and extent and its immense importance. 

As early as August, 1841, his brothers, James C. 
and Edwin A. Stevens, representing Robert L., ad- 
dressed a letter to the Secretary of the Navy, pro- 
posing to build an iron-clad vessel of high speed, 
with all its machinery below the water-line, and hav- 
ing submerged screw-propellers. The armament was 
to consist of powerful breech-loading rifled guns, 
provided with elongated shot and shell. In the year 
1842, having contracted to build for the United 
States government a steamer on this plan, Robert L. 



154 ROBERT FULTON- 

Stevens built his steamboat at Bordentown, for the 
sole purpose of experimenting on the forms and 
curves of propeller-blades, as compared with side- 
wheels, and, as already stated, worked many months. 
After some delay, the keel of an iron-clad was laid 
down. This vessel was to have been 250 feet long, 
40 feet beam, and 28 feet deep. The machinery 
was 700 horse-power. The plating was proposed 
to be 4 J inches thick, — the thickness adopted ten 
years later by the French. 

In 1854 such marked progress had been made 
that Mr. Stevens was no longer willing to proceed 
with the original plans, and work, which had pro- 
gressed very slowly and intermittently, was stopped 
entirely; and in 1854 the keel of a ship of much 
greater size and power was laid down. The new 
design was 415 feet long, of 45 feet beam, and of 
something over 5,000 tons displacement, while its 
machinery was of 8,600 horse-power. The thickness 
of armor proposed was 6| inches. The engines were 
to drive twin screws, propelling the vessel twenty miles 
or more an hour. 

The remarkable genius of Stevens is in no way 
better exemplified than by the accuracy with which, 
in this great ship, those forms and proportions were 
adopted which are now, many years later, recognized 
as most correct under similar conditions. The lines 
of the vessel were beautifully fair and fine, — what 
J. Scott Russell called "wave-lines," or trochoidal 
lines, and are now known to be the best possible for 
easy propulsion. 



RIVER AND OCEAN STEAM-FLEETS. 155 

The death of Robert L. Stevens occurred in April, 
1856, when the hull and machinery were practically 
finished, and it only remained to add the armour- 
plating, and to decide upon the form of fighting- 
house and the number and size of guns. The 
construction of the vessel then ceased and it was 
never completed. 

From the time of Fulton, the progress of steam- 
navigation on the rivers of the United States was 
rapid. The ^^ Phoenix " of Stevens opened the Del- 
aware, and the boats of Fulton himself and his suc- 
cessors introduced the new system of transportation 
on the Connecticut and Long Island Sound. The 
venturesome voyage of Roosevelt, in 181 1, down the, 
Ohio and the Mississippi, was made on the first of 
the steam-vessels, since numbered by thousands, on 
the western waters. His boat, the " New Orleans," 
ran for years between the city of that name and 
Natchez. The "Enterprise," in 18 14, took part in 
the defence of New Orleans by General Jackson, and 
afterward ascended the " Father of Waters," reaching 
Louisville in twenty-five days from New Orleans. A 
quarter of a century later the trip was made in less 
than a week; and in 1850, four days was considered 
good time for the same voyage. 

By the year i860 there were about one hundred 
and twenty-five steamboats on the Ohio and Missis- 
sippi and their tributaries, some of which made twenty 
miles an hour or more. All were paddle-boats, and 
usually stern - wheelers, — that type of vessel being 
found more manageable on those rivers, — although 



156 ROBERT FULTON. 

the side-wheeler became the only form of steamboat 
on the rivers and sounds of the coast for many years, 
and until the advent of the screw. 

The growth of steam-navigation in Great Britain 
was less rapid than in the United States ; but as early 
as 1 815, about the time of Fulton's death, there were 
ten steamers on the Clyde, and seven or eight on 
the Thames. The " Argyle " was the first sea-going 
steamer built in British waters. This vessel made a 
voyage from the Clyde, where she was built, to Lon- 
don, where she was to be employed, after a year of 
service between Glasgow and Greenock. The voyage 
was made in about a month, in a stormy season, and 
the Thames was safely reached, the vessel then en- 
tering upon her regular scheduled trips between Lon- 
don and Margate. In 1816 the steamer "Majestic," 
built at Ramsgate for the purpose, made her first trips 
between Brighton and Havre, and from Dover to 
Calais. It was in this year that Captain Bunker, who 
had served on the " Phoenix," was given command ot 
the steamer "Connecticut," and established the first 
line of boats on Long Island Sound, between New 
York and New Haven and New London. From this 
date on, British steamers began to appear in all the 
principal harbours of Great Britain, and lines to 
Ireland and to the French and Dutch coasts were 
rapidly created. 

Progress continued to be most rapid in the United 
States, however. Cornelius Vanderbilt made his first 
venture in the "Bolona," built by Lawrence in 181 7 ; 
and the fortunes of that family and the steam-navi- 



RIVER AND OCEAN STEAM-FLEETS. 157 

gation of the Hudson and of the sounds adjacent 
flourished together. The trip to Providence from 
New York was made, in those days, in about twenty- 
hours, and the price paid was ten dollars, including 
berths and meals. 

About 182 1 Robert L. Thurston, John Babcock, 
and Capt. Stephen T. Northam, of Newport, R. I., 
commenced building steamboats, beginning with a 
small craft intended for use at Slade's Ferry, near 
Fall River. They afterward built vessels to ply on 
Long Island Sound. One of the earliest was the 
" Babcock," built at Newport in 1826. The engine 
was built by Thurston and Babcock, at Portsmouth, 
R. I. They were assisted in their work by Richard 
Sanford, and with funds by Northam. The engine 
was of twelve inches diameter of cylinder, and four 
feet stroke of piston. The boiler was a form of 
"pipe-boiler," patented (1824) by Babcock. The 
water used was injected into the hot boiler as fast as 
required to furnish steam, no water being retained 
in the steam-generator. This boat was succeeded, in 
1 82 7-1 828, by a larger vessel, — the " Rushlight," — 
for which the engine was built by James P. Allaire, at 
New York, while the boat was built at Newport. The 
boilers of both vessels had tubes of cast-iron. The 
smaller of these boats was of eighty tons burden. It 
steamed from Newport to Providence, 30 miles, in 
3-| hours, and to New York, a distance of 1 75 miles, 
in 25 hours, using i| cords of wood.''- Thurston and 
Babcock removed to Providence, where the latter 
died. Thurston continued to build steam-engines 
1 History of the Growth of the Steam-Engine, p 281. 



IS8 ROBERT FULTON. 

there nearly a half-century, dying in 1874. The 
establishment founded by him, after various changes, 
became the present Providence Steam-Engine Works. 
This " pipe-boiler " was intended, as was the earlier 
construction of the elder Stevens, for high pressures, 
which now came into use. As early as 1 8 1 7, according 
to the testimony of Seth Hunt before a parliamentary 
committee in England, Oliver Evans had successfully 
carried pressures of one hundred and forty and one 
hundred and sixty pounds of steam ; and now James 
P. Allaire, of New York, started on the same line of 
improvement in economy. Watt had showed, both by 
his logical deduction, exemplified in his patent of 1 769, 
and by actual construction of engines some years later, 
that the expansive action of steam was an available 
source of economy, and had beaten Hornblower, whose 
compound engine was expressly constructed for the pur- 
pose of securing that advantage. Allaire used the com- 
pound engine, with steam at a pressure of one hundred 
pounds and upward, in 1825, for the first time in steam- 
navigation. The first of his vessels of this class was the 
"Henry Eckford," and this was succeeded by others, 
one of which, the " Sun," made the run from New York 
to Albany in twelve hours, eighteen minutes. Erastus 
W. Smith afterward introduced the compound engine 
on the Great Lakes, and they were still later intro- 
duced into British steamers by John Elder and his 
partners. The machinery of the steamer " Buckeye 
State " was constructed at the Allaire Works, New York, 
in 1850, from the designs of John Baird and Smith, 
the latter being the designing and constructing engi- 
neer. The steamer was placed on the route between 



RIVER AND OCEAN STEAM-FLEETS. 159 

Buffalo, Cleveland, and Detroit, in 1851, with most 
satisfactory results, consuming less than two thirds the 
fuel required by a similar vessel fitted with the single- 
cylinder engine. The steam-cylinders were placed 
one within the other, the low-pressure exterior cylinder 
being annular. They were 3 7 and 80 inches in diam- 
eter, respectively, with a piston-stroke of 11 feet. 
Both pistons were connected to one cross-head, and 
the arrangement of the engine was that of the common 
beam-engine. The steam-pressure was seventy to 
seventy-five pounds, — about the maximum pressure 
adopted a quarter of a century later on trans-Atlantic 
lines. 

The French engineers were but little behind their 
American rivals in this race, and built a steamboat 
with compound engines, in 1829, called the "Union," 
from the plans of M. Hallette, of Arras. Steam was 
carried at sixty-five to seventy pounds pressure. 

As illustrating the latest form of the lineal succes- 
sor of Fulton's '' Clermont," we may take the Hudson 
River steamer " New York," plying on the same 
route. The hull of this vessel was built at Wilmington, 
Del., by The Harlan and Hollingsworth Co., of iron 
throughout. The dimensions are as follows : 

Length on the water-line . . 301 feet. 

Length over all 311 " 

Breadth of beam, moulded . . 40 " 
Breadth of beam, over guards 74 " 

Depth, moulded 12^3 ins. 

Draft of water 6 " 

Tonnage (net, 1091.89) . 1552.52 



i6o 



ROBERT FULTON. 




RIVER AND OCEAN STEAM-FLEETS. l6i 

The machinery was built by the W. & A. Fletcher 
Company, North River Iron Works. The engine is 
a standard American beam-engine, with a cylinder 
seventy-five inches diameter and twelve feet stroke of 
piston, with Stevens's cut-off. The use of a surface 
condenser, instead of a jet condenser, in this river 
steamer, is a change made to overcome the evil of 
using mixed salt and fresh water in the boilers. 

Another is the adoption of " feathering- wheels " 
instead of the radial wheels, with fixed buckets or 
floats. These wheels are 30 feet 2 inches diameter 
outside of buckets. There are twelve curved steel 
buckets to each wheel. Each bucket is 3 feet 9 
inches wide and t2 feet 6 inches long, with an angle 
iron 3x5 inches on each end. The wheels are over- 
hung, or have a bearing outboard on the hull only. 
The feathering is done in the usual manner by means 
of driving and radius bars, operated by a centre placed 
eccentric to the shaft and held by the A frame on the 
guard. They were introduced in the " New York " 
for the purpose of gaining speed, and the trial- 
trips show that the builders' expectations were not 
groundless. 

Absence of jar is another great gain obtained by 
the use of these wheels, and the comparatively thin 
buckets enter the water so smoothly that the boat is 
without the shake so common with the ordinary 
wheels. 

Steam is supplied to the engine by three return flue- 
boilers, each 9 J feet diameter of shell, 11 feet width 
of front, and t,-^ feet long. These boilers are con- 

n 



1 62 ROBERT FULTON. 

structed for a working pressure of fifty pounds per 
square inch. Each boiler has a grate surface of 76 
square feet, or 228 square feet in all, and with the 
forced draught produce 3,850 horse-power. 

Another measure of safety is the steam steerer, 
which has been put on so that the boat can be 
handled with the quick and easy precision due to this 
improvement. 

The exterior is, as usual in this class of steamers, 
of pine painted white, relieved with tints and gold. 
The interior is finished in cabinet work, and is all 
hard wood, — ash being used forward of the shaft on 
the main deck and mahogany aft and in the dining- 
cabin. 

The construction of steamers of recent design for 
lake and sound routes, as between New York and 
New England, on Long Island Sound, is exemplified 
by that of the "Puritan." 

" The * Puritan ' has principal dimensions as follows : 
Length, over all, 420 feet ; length on the water-hne, 
404 feet; width of hull, 52 feet; extreme breadth 
over guards, 91 feet; depth of hull amidships, 21 
feet, 6 inches; height of dome from base-line, d^i 
feet ; whole depth, from base-line to top of house 
over the engine, 70 feet. Her total displacement is 
4,150 tons, and her gross tonnage 4,650 tons. 

" The ' Puritan ' is fireproof and unsinkable, has a 
double hull divided into fifty-nine water-tight compart- 
ments. In the fastenings of her steel hulls and com- 
partments, there have been used seven hundred thou- 
sand rivets. Her decks are of steel, wood covered. 



RIVER AND OCEAN STEAM-FLEETS. 163 




Pi 









1 64 ROBERT FULTON. 

Her masts are of steel, and hollow, to serve as venti- 
lators, and are twenty-two inches in diameter. Her 
paddle-wheels are encased in steel. 

" The '■ Puritan's ' hull is made of ' mild steel,' 
which metal, weight for weight, is some twenty per 
cent stronger than iron, with twenty-five per cent re- 
duction of area, according to the best Government 
test. " Her wheels are of steel, and are 35 feet in 
diameter outside the buckets. The buckets are 14 
feet long and 5 feet wide, each bucket of steel | 
inch, thick, and weighing 2,800 pounds without rock- 
ing-arms and brackets attached. The total weight of 
each wheel is 100 tons. "She has eight steel boilers 
of the Red field return tubular type, and the maxi- 
mum working pressure is one hundred and ten 
pounds to the square inch. This fact illustrates the 
great advances made since the days of Fulton in the 
safe employment of high-pressure steam ; and the 
standard construction continually tends toward still 
higher tension. 

" The * Puritan ' has a compound, vertical beam, 
surface-condensing engine of 7,500 horse-power. The 
high-pressure cylinder is 75 inches in diameter, and 
9 feet stroke of piston. The low-pressure cylinder is 
no inches in diameter, and 14 feet stroke of piston. 
A horse and wagon could be driven through this cyl- 
inder if laid on its side. The surface condenser has 
15,000 square feet of cooling surface and weighs 53 
tons. Of condenser tubes of brass there are \/\^\ 
miles in the ' Puritan.' Her working beam is the 
largest ever made, being 34 feet in length from 



RIVER AND OCEAN STEAM-FLEETS. 165 

centre to centre, 17 feet wide, and weighing 42 
tons. When it is considered that the section of 
beam-strap measures 9^x11 J inches, one may get 
an idea of the enormous strain and the strength 
of resistance of this beam. The main centre of the 
beam is 19 inches in diameter in bearing. The shafts 
are 27 inches in diameter in main bearing, and 30 
inches in gunwale bearing, and are the largest ever 
made in this country. They weigh 40 tons each. 
The cranks weigh 9 tons each. The crank-pin is 
enormous, the bearing being 10 inches in diameter 
and 22 inches long. 

" There are two centrifugal circulating pumps, each 
capable of throwing ten thousand gallons per minute. 
Besides these there are three other large pumps, with a 
combined capacity of two thousand gallons per minute. 
Novel features are the three steam capstans, — one for- 
ward and one on each quarter, — to be used in docking 
the boat ; each capstan has a double cylinder engine, 
each cylinder twelve inches in diameter and fourteen 
inches stroke. She has two Sturtevant blowers, furnish- 
ing fresh air for fire-room, each capable of fifty thou- 
sand feet per minute. She will burn about one 
hundred and twenty tons of coal on the trip from 
New York to Fall River and back. 

"From stem to stern, and in every nook and cor- 
ner of the ship, the electric wire is to be found. In 
all, there are twelve miles of this wire ; and including 
annunciators, fire-alarm, etc., there are twenty miles 
of wire on the ship, and twelve thousand feet of steam 
pipe. There are capacious gangways, grand and im- 



l66 ROBERT FULTON. 

posing staircases heavy with brass and mahogany, 
lofty cornices, and ceiHngs supported by tasteful pi- 
lasters, the tapering columns of which, in relief, flank 
exquisitely tinted panelling throughout the length of 
her grand and minor saloons. And over all this ar- 
tistic work and exuberant colouring, the incandescent 
electric light sheds its soft rays. Every convenience 
known to civilization, and which can contribute to 
the ease and comfort of the traveller on land or when 
afloat, is included in the internal arrangements of this 
floating caravansary. The artistic and luxuriant sense 
of the beholder is also abundantly appealed to. The 
* Puritan ' has in all, three hundred and sixty- four 
staterooms. _ 

^' Some idea of the immense amount of finish in the 
different departments may be obtained when it is 
understood that in the gilding alone 185,000 gold 
leaves, each 3! inches square, were used. In paint- 
ing the ship nearly one hundred thousand pounds of 
lead were expended." ^ 

1 Fall River Line Gazette. 



OCEAN STEAMERS. 1 67 



VIII. 

OCEAN STEAMERS. — THE OUTLOOK. 

Steam- NAVIGATION on the ocean had a real begin- 
ning about 1 840, and this may be taken as the period 
of introduction of the screw-propeller, — two events 
of supreme importance in the history of the art which 
the work of Fulton had so effectively promoted. Ten- 
tatively, the steam-navigation of the ocean had begun 
but little later than the navigation of the rivers and 
harbours of the United States. The ocean voyage of 
Robert L. Stevens was soon followed by those of Bell 
and Dodd in Great Britain; and by 1815 it was 
recognized as a possibility that long voyages might be 
undertaken by larger vessels. The first transatlantic 
voyage was made by the "Savannah," in 1819, partly 
by steam, in part by sail. This ship is now famous 
as the pioneer in this great traffic. The following 
description has been elsewhere given by the Author : 1 

The "Savannah" measured three hundred and fifty 
tons, and was constructed by Crocker & Fickett, at 
Corlear's Hook, N. Y. She was purchased by Mr. 
Scarborough, of Savannah, who placed Captain Moses 
Rogers, previously in command of the " Clermont " 

1 History of the Steam-Engine, p. 285, et seq. 



i68 



ROBERT FULTON. 




o 

m 

O 
I 






OCEAN STEAMERS. 169 

and of Stevens's boat, the ^' Phoenix," in charge. The 
ship was fitted with steam machinery and paddle-wheels, 
and sailed for Savannah, April 27, 18 19, making the 
voyage successfully in seven days. From Savannah, 
the vessel sailed for Liverpool, May 26, and arrived 
at that port June 20. During this trip the engines 
were used eighteen days, and the remainder of the 
voyage was made under sail. From Liverpool the 
"Savannah" sailed, July 23, for the Baltic, touching 
at Copenhagen, Stockholm, St. Petersburg, and other 
ports. At St. Petersburg, Lord Lyndock, who had 
been a passenger, was landed ; and on taking leave 
of the commander of the steamer the distinguished 
guest presented him with a silver tea-kettle, suitably 
inscribed with a legend referring to the importance of 
the event which afforded him this opportunity. The 
" Savannah " left St. Petersburg in November, passing 
New York December 9, and reaching Savannah in 
fifty days from the date of departure, stopping four 
days at Copenhagen, Denmark, and an equal length 
of time at Arundel, Norway. Several severe gales 
were met in the Atlantic, but no serious injury was 
done to the ship. 

The " Savannah " was a full-rigged ship. The 
wheels were turned by an inclined direct-acting low- 
pressure engine, having a steam- cylinder forty inches 
in diameter and six feet stroke of piston. The 
paddle-wheels were of wrought- iron, and were so 
arranged that they could be detached and hoisted on 
board when found advisable. After the return of the 
ship to the United States the machinery was removed, 



T70 ROBERT FULTON. 

and was sold to the Allaire Works, of New York. 
The steam- cylinder was exhibited by the purchasers 
at the World's Fair at New York, thirty years later. 
The vessel was employed as a sailing-vessel on a line 
between New York and Savannah, and was finally 
lost in the year 1822 

Later, the "Enterprise " made a voyage (1825) to 
India, under steam and sail as the weather and circum- 
stances permitted ; and still other vessels were built, 
using " auxiliary " engines, as they were called ; but 
even as late as 1838 there were grave doubts expressed 
by eminent authorities of the feasibility of making long 
voyages by steam alone. These doubts were, however, 
set at rest in that year by the crossing of the Atlantic by 
two steamers almost simultaneously, — the "Sirius" 
and the " Great Western." The latter was a large 
vessel for those days, and nearly double the size and 
power of the other. The "Great Western" was of 
1,350 tons burden and 450 horse-power ; the " Sirius " 
was of 700 tons and 250 horse-power 

The " Sirius " sailed from Cork on the 4th and the 
''Great Western" from Bristol on the 8th of April, 
both arriving in New York on the same day, — April 
23, 1838, — the one in the morning, the other in the 
afternoon. These vessels were placed on the route 
in the interests, respectively, of the British and Ameri- 
can Steam Navigation Co., and of the Great West- 
ern Railway of Great Britain. Both ships returned 
safely, making good time ; and the larger was kept 
on the Une for some years, making many successful 
voyages. The other craft was deemed too small 



OCEAN STEAMERS. 



171 



for the route and was taken off and placed on a line 
between Dublin and Cork. Other ships were soon 
built for this trade, and the transoceanic lines were 
gradually estabhshed, never again to be given up. As 
may well be imagined, the appearance of the two 
pioneers in New York harbour was a most impressive 
event, and awakened the greatest enthusiasm on both 
sides the Atlantic. The formation of the still-existing 




Fig. 20. — The " Pacific," 185 1. 



Cunard Line immediately followed ; its first vessel, 
the " Britannia," sailing for New York on the 4th of 
July, 1840. Three sister ships followed; and the four 
steamers continued in service until the success of the 
enterprise was so far assured as to justify the building 
of larger and more powerful vessels. These four ships 
had an aggregate of about forty-six hundred tons bur- 
den, — about one half the tonnage of single vessels 
now on transatlantic lines. These vessels and the ships 
of the first large American company, the Collins Line, 



172 



ROBERT FULTON. 



organized about 1850, were all paddle-steamers with 
side-lever engines, like that illustrated in figure 21. 
They were first built, it is said, by Messrs. Maudsley, 
Sons, & Field, about 1835 ; but that here illustrated 
was designed by Mr. Charles Copeland, of New York, 
for the " Pacific," one of the Collins steamers. 




Fig. 21. — The Side-Lever Engine, 1849. 

This steamer was built at New York, — the hull by 
William Brown, and the machinery by the Novelty 
Iron Works. The length of the hull was 276 feet, 
its breadth 45 feet, and the depth of hold 31^ feet. 
The width over the paddle-boxes was 75 feet. The 
ship measured 2,860 tons. The form of the hull 
was such as best adapted the ship for high speed. 
The main *' saloon " was about 70 feet long, and the 



OCEAN STEAMERS. 173 

dining-room was 60 feet in length and twenty feet 
wide. The staterooms accommodated 150 passen- 
gers. These vessels inaugurated our present wonder- 
ful system of passenger-transportation.^ The engines 
were of the side-lever type, as illustrated in Figure 21. 

In this engine the piston-rod was attached to a 
cross-head, from which, at each side, links B C, con- 
nected with the side-lever, D E F. The latter 
vibrated about a main centre at E ; from its other 
end a connecting-rod, H, led to the cross-tail, W, 
connected to the crank-pin, /. The condenser, M, 
and air-pump, Q, were between the cylinder, A, and 
the crank, I J. 

The Collins Line proved a failure ; but it was very 
largely a consequence of a series of misfortunes, for 
which neither the management nor the officers of the 
ships were held accountable. Ship after ship was lost, 
and the costs of operation in competition with the 
British lines, which were subject to far less expense, 
proved to be unexpectedly large. It is also probable 
that the general introduction of the screw, after these 
ships had been built as paddle-steamer&, had some- 
thing, perhaps much, to do with the final breaking 
down of so expensive and burdensome a line. The 
screw-propeller had by this time become an unde- 
niable success in competition with the paddle in ocean 
steaming; and screw-vessels now rapidly displaced 
those propelled by paddle-wheels. 

The screw-propeller, proposed by Bernouilli and by 
Watt, used successfully by Fitch and by Stevens and 

1 History of the S team-Engine, p. 290. 



174 ROBERT FULTON. 

Smith, and a little later (1812) by Trevithick, was 
finally brought into use for general purposes by Fran- 
cis Pettit Smith in Great Britain, and by John Erics- 
son in the United States, after the latter had made an 
experimental success but a commercial failure of it in 
England. Ericsson's patent on his screw was issued 
from the British patent office in 1836. His boat, built 
in that year, was found to be capable of doing good 
work as a " tug " on the Thames, making ten miles an 
hour, running free, and towing large vessels at the 
rate of five to seven miles an hour. The British Ad- 
miralty, with customary conservatism, refused to adopt 
Ericsson's plans, and he was persuaded by Captain 
Stockton, an enterprising American naval officer, to 
go with him to the United States, and there endeavour 
to interest the Navy Department in his inventions. 
A screw-vessel, the "Stockton," was accordingly built 
in England and sent over to the United States in 
1839 ; and Ericsson followed, to build other vessels 
for Stockton and his partners in the venture. The 
*' Stockton " remained in service on the Delaware and 
Raritan Canal, under the name of the " New Jersey," 
for many years. 

After the departure of Ericsson a company was 
formed in England to work the patents of Smith ; and 
this company built the "Archimedes," the trial-trip 
being made October 14 of that year. This boat made 
nearly ten miles an hour ; and the British Admiralty 
at last began to take some interest in the subject, 
and subsequently adopted the screw for naval pur- 
poses. Meantime, also. Congress had authorized the 



OCEAN STEAMERS. i 75 

construction of new vessels, and Ericsson was allowed 
to introduce his screw and his engines into one of 
them, — the " Princeton." This was the first steamer 
built for war purposes which was fitted with a screw- 
propeller. She was large for the time, — about one 
thousand tons displacement, — and all the machinery 
was placed under the water-line for the first time also. 

In reporting on the performance of this ship, Cap- 
tain Stockton, who was the first commander, recites 
the advantages possessed by the steamer in conse- 
quence of the facts that her machinery is out of reach 
of shot ; that no paddles are in sight ; that she has 
clear decks ; and that, burning anthracite coal, no 
smoke is visible ; he then goes on to repeat, substan- 
tially, the idea of Fulton, saying, " The improvements 
in the art of war eifected on board the '■ Princeton ' 
may be productive of more important results than 
anything that has occurred since the invention of 
gunpowder. The numerical force of other navies, so 
long boasted, may be set at naught ; the ocean may 
again become neutral ground ; and the rights of the 
smallest, as well as the greatest nations, may once 
more be respected." The hull of the vessel was 
condemned in 1849, ^^^ the ship broken up. A 
second hull was built, fitted with the same ma- 
chinery, and given the same name, in 1851, but was 
less satisfactory, performed little service, and was sold 
out of the service in 1867. Since the days of the 
** Princeton," all navies have adopted the screw- 
propeller, and all naval fleets are steam-fleets. 

The screw was found to possess many advantages 



17^ ROBERT FULTON. 

over the paddle-wheel. The cost of machinery was 
greatly reduced ; the expense of maintenance in 
working order was, however, somewhat increased. 
The latter disadvantage was, nevertheless, compen- 
sated by an immense increase in the economy of 
power for ship-propulsion, which marked the substi- 
tution of the new machinery. 

When a ship is under way, the motion of the vessel 
creates a current of water in the direction in which 
the ship is moving, following the ship for a time, and 
finally losing all motion by contact with the surround- 
ing mass of water. All the power expended in the 
production of this great stream is, in the paddle- 
steamer, lost. In screw-steamers, however, the pro- 
pelling instrument works in this following current ; and 
the tendency is to bring the fluid to rest, taking up, 
and thus restoring usefully, a large part of that energy 
which would otherwise have been lost. The screw is 
covered by the water, and acts with comparative effi- 
ciency in consequence of its submersion. The rota- 
tion of the screw is rapid and smooth also, and this 
permits the use of small, light, fast-running engines. 
The latter condition leads to economy of weight and 
space, and saves not only the cost of transportation of 
the excess of weight of the larger kind of engine, but 
leaving so much more room for cargo, the gain is 
found to be a double one. Still further : the quick- 
running engine is, other things being equal, the most 
economical, and thus expense is saved, not only in 
the purchase of fuel, but in its transportation ; and 
additional gain is derived from the increased amount 



OCEAN STEAMERS. 177 

of paying cargo which the vessel is thus enabled to 
carry. ^ 

Since the days of Ericsson's great success in the 
introduction of the screw-propeller and the organiza- 
tion of steam-fleets, there have been two great im- 
provements in the steam-engine, and two important 
changes in naval construction. The first two are 
the general introduction of the surface-condenser, 
and the use of the compound engine at sea; the 
second two are the building of the iron-clad fleet, 
and the construction of Ericsson's greatest inven- 
tion, the '• Monitor." During these fifty years, also, 
the steam-fleets of the merchant navies of the world 
have become enormously increased in numbers, their 
vessels have grown to tremendous size, and their 
machinery has more than proportionally gained in 
power, driving their great hulls through the heaviest 
seas with the speed of the railway train on land. 

The change from the side-lever single-cylinder 
engine, with jet-condenser and paddle-wheels, to the 
direct-acting compound engine, with surface-con- 
denser and screw-propellers, has occurred within this 
period. Builders slowly learned the principles gov- 
erning expansion in one or more cyhnders ; and the 
earlier engines were often made with a high and low 
pressure cylinder working on the same rod, each 
machine consisting of four steam-cylinders. It was 
at last discovered that a high-pressure single-cylinder 
engine exhausting into a separate larger low-pressure 
engine might do as well, and the compound engine 

1 History of the Steam-Engine, p. 297. 
12 



178 ROBERT FULTON. 

became as simple as the type of engine which it 
displaced. 

The advantage of introducing such engines at sea 
is considerably greater than on land. The coal car- 
ried by a steam-vessel is not only an item of great 
importance in consequence of its cost, but it repre- 
sents so much non-paying cargo, and is to be charged 
with the full cost of transportation in addition to first 
cost and the loss of profit on the freight that it dis- 
places. To this saving of cost on fuel account, by 
the use of the later type of engine, is to be added the 
gain in wages and sustenance of the labour required 
to handle that coal. 

At sea, rise of steam-pressure was for a considerable 
time retarded by the serious difficulty encountered in 
the tendency of the sulphate of Hme to deposit from 
the sea-water in the boiler. When steam-pressure 
had risen to twenty-five pounds per square inch, it was 
found that no amount of " blowing out" would pre-, 
vent the deposition of seriously large quantities of this 
salt. The. introduction of surface-condensation was 
attempted as the remedy for this evil, but it was long 
doubtful whether its disadvantages were not greater 
than its advantages. It was found difficult to keep 
the condensers tight ; and boilers were injured by 
corrosion, evidently due to the presence of the sur- 
face-condenser. The simple expedient of permitting 
a thin scale to form in the boiler was, after a time, hit 
upon as a means of overcoming this difficulty. Once 
introduced, the surface-condenser removed the ob- 
stacle to further elevation of steam-pressure, and the 



OCEAN STEAMERS. I79 

rise from twenty to sixty pounds pressure, and more, 
soon occurred. John Elder and his competitors 
on the Clyde were the first to take advantage of 
the fact when these higher pressures became prac- 
ticable. 

Extreme lightness in modern machinery has been 
largely the result of skilful designing, of intelligent 
construction, and of care in the selection of material. 
To-day, the engines of heavy iron-clads are models 
of good proportions, excellence in materials, and of 
workmanship. The weight per indicated horse-power 
has been reduced from 400 or 500 pounds to a frac- 
tion of that amount. This has been accomplished by 
forcing the boilers, by higher steam-pressure, higher 
piston-speed, reduction of friction of parts, reduction 
of capacity for coal-stowage, and careful propor- 
tioning. The reduction of coal-capacity is compen- 
sated by increase of economy secured by high pressure, 
by increased expansion, elevation of piston-speed, 
and the introduction of the compound engine with 
surface- condensation. 

A good marine steam-engine of the form consid- 
ered standard about i860, having low-pressure boilers 
carrying steam at 20 or 25 pounds pressure, expanding 
twice or three times, and with a jet-condenser, would 
require about 30 or 35 pounds of feed-water per 
horse-power per hour ; substituting surface-conden- 
sation brought down the weight of steam used to 
from 25 to 30 pounds. Increasing steam-pressure to 
60 pounds, expanding from five to eight times, and 
combining the special advantages of the superheater 



i8o ROBERT FULTON. 

and the compound engine with surface-condensation 
reduced the consumption of steam to 20, and with 
100 to 150 pounds pressure in the " triple-expansion " 
engine, in some cases to 15 pounds of steam per 
horse-power per hour. 

The next engraving illustrates the modern com- 
pound engine. Here, the cranks FZare coupled at 
an angle of ninety degrees, only two cylinders, A B, 
being used ; and an awkward distribution of pressure 
is avoided by having a considerable volume of steam- 
pipe, or by a steam-reservoir, O P^ between the two 
cylinders. The valves, y y, are set like those of 
an ordinary engine, the peculiarity being that the 
steam exhausted by the one cylinder. A, is used again 
in the second and larger one, B. In this combination, 
the expansion is generally carried to about six times, 
the pressure of steam in the boiler being usually be- 
tween sixty and seventy-five pounds per square inch. 

The latest form of marine engine is the " quadruple- 
expansion " engine, in which the steam, taken from 
boilers carrying a pressure of one hundred and fifty 
to two hundred pounds per square inch, is worked 
through a series of steam-cylinders, expanding con- 
tinually to lower pressures as it goes, until it is finally 
discharged into the condenser at a pressure far below 
that of the atmosphere, all its energy converted, so far 
as the laws of nature allow, into working power. 
Thus expanding the steam to sixteen or twenty times 
its original volume, each of the four elements of the 
engine doing its share of the work, this machine is 
found capable of vastly more eifective use of steam 



OCEAN STEAMERS. I5I 

than the older types of engine, in which the wastes 
within the cyUnders were increased with increasing 
expansion in far higher proportion than the gain by 
expansion itself. In the various compound engines, 
the wastes of one steam-cylinder are utilized more or 
less completely in the next, thus making the total 
waste approximately, for the series, only that of one 
of its cylinders. Otherwise stated, the physical wastes 
of heat and steam in the " multiple-cyhnder " en- 
gine of extreme expansion is approximately that only 
of a single cylinder, with a fraction of that degree of 
expansion. This is, in simple terms, the secret of 
the gain by the use of the compound engine. This 
change of type has been slowly going on, both on 
land and sea, ever since the time of Watt, whose con- 
temporary and rival, Hornblower, first endeavoured 
to introduce the now standard system. It has now 
so far progressed that the marine engine demands 
.only from one and a quarter to one and a half pounds 
of fuel of good quality per horse-power and per hour. 
In special instances, on land, where the conditions 
of operation could be made exceptionally favourable, 
the economy of the engine is claimed to have been 
made even greater. Even the locomotive engine is 
now in process of conversion into a compound engine, 
with good results in many cases. 

As the compound engine revolutionized the meth- 
ods and results of the work of the engineer in steam- 
navigation, so the entrance of the modern iron-clad 
upon the scene, about the middle of the century, 
revolutionized many of the methods and the results 



l82 



ROBERT FULTON. 




.s 

*5i 
c 
W 

S 



o 

g 

o 

u 



o 



0) 



bo 



OCEAN STEAMERS. 183 

of naval contests. The idea was by no means new ; 
but like all great inventions, time had been required 
for it to become matured, and especially for the world 
to make ready for it. The Stevens Battery was prob- 
ably the first real armoured war-vessel proposed and 
planned, and actually placed on the stocks ; but the 
first use of the iron-clad of which we have authentic 
knowledge was during the Crimean War, when the 
French and English fleet was reinforced by a few 
iron-clad craft, small and rude, crude in design and 
thin of plating, but which were sufficient to indicate 
the probability that such vessels might find place in 
modern fleets. To-day all fighting ships are plated, 
and their dimensions have increased, and the thick- 
ness of their armour has been made correspondingly 
greater, until they are now the largest of ships, and 
their plating withstands the shock of guns throwing 
shot weighing many hundred pounds, with a velocity of 
nearly a half-mile in a second ; but they are neverthe- 
less still vulnerable when attacked by Fulton's method 
of submarine warfare with torpedoes. 

Modern fleets include, in some countries, part of 
the more efficient and the larger merchant- vessels ; 
and in Great Britain all the largest and fastest trans- 
oceanic ships are retained, under the laws of the 
naval code, for use by the Government in time of war, 
thus making an enormous and important addition to 
the unarmoured fleet. Lloyd's Register of Shipping 
of the "War-ships of the World," for 1890, gives sta- 
tistical and other information regarding all navies, 
which will be interesting in this connection : — 



i84 



ROBERT FULTON. 



Number of first-class armour- 
clads (iS-in. armour and 
above) 

Other sea-going armour- 
clads 

Cruisers and sloops (above 
900 tons) 

Gun vessels (over 600 tons) 

Gunboats (over 200 tons) . 
War-vessels over 14 knots . 



Merchant ships to each 
cruiser or sloop .... 

Merchant tonnage to each 
cruiser or sloop . . . , 

Merchant ships to each war- 
vessel ....... 



Britain. 


United 
States. 


France. 


Ger- 
many. 


Italy. 


Russia. 


19 




13 




10 


7 


41 


• • 


27 


16 


II 


17 


166 


47 


63 


35 


22 


32 


47 


3 


11 


4 


17 


4 


81 


2 


37 


10 


22 


14 


169 


19 


75 


44 


55 


23 


39 


9 


8 


21 


10 


7 


49,000 


11,000 


13,000 


26,500 


13,600 


SjOOo 


38 


22 


7 


17 


4 

■ 


8 



The speeds of the several classes of war- vessels are 
as follows : — 





Britain. 


France. 


Germany. 


Italy. 


Total, including 
other Nations 


Over 20 knots : 












Number .... 


50 


5 


2 


17 


94 


Tons displacement 


135,900 


24,280 


640 


12,390 


238,663 


Number of guns . 


290 


48 




16 


350 


Over iQ knots: 












Number. . . . 


24 


10 


9 


3 


61 


Tons displacement 


96,510 


30,030 


10,870 


7,900 


208,210 


(( 


196 


58 


10 


26 


375 


Over iS knots: 












Number .... 


9 


II 


8 


9 


6t 


Tons displacement 


46,660 


4,980 


57j26o 


71.310 


232,800 




107 


5 


56 


72 


334 



The largest vessels included in the British 20-knot 
list are the " Blake " and " Blenheim," of 9,000 tons, 
and 22 knots speed, with 9j-inch guns, France's 



OCEAN STEAMERS. 185 

largest are the "Dupuy de Lome" and '^Arairal 
Jaures," of 6,300 tons and 20 knots speed. Ger- 
many has two small torpedo-catchers of 22 knots, 
and Italy several of 21 knots, while Austria has three 
of 23 knots speed. Spain has the "Reina Regente," 
of 21 knots speed, and two sister ships. It seems 
that sixteen merchant-vessels are able to steam over 
19 knots, several of them at 21 knots. Of this 
number nine are Atlantic vessels, three Hamburg- 
American liners, two White Star, two Inman, and 
two Cunard liners, while the remainder are paddle- 
steamers on the Channel,- — eight between England 
and the Continent, and two to the Isle of Man. 
Several steamers have since been added to the list. 

Among the most famous of the great steamers of 
recent years, — the "ocean greyhounds," as they 
have been well named, — are the Cunard steamers 
"Umbria" and "Etruria;" the still faster vessels of 
the Inman line, — the -'City of New York" and the 
"City of Paris;" and the later ships of the White 
Star line, — the "Majestic'' and the "Teutonic." 
They are all ships of 8,000 to 10,000 tons burden, and 
of -from 15,000 to 20,000 horse-power. The "City 
of Paris," for example, cost to build over ^350,000, 
or about ^1,750,000. Her length is 580 feet, and 
breadth of beam d^^ feet, while her two complete sets 
of engines are of the triple expansion type, and of 
about 20,000 horse-power. A manufacturing estab- 
lishment requiring engines of 1,000 horse-power is 
considered a great enterprise, but this steamer's en- 
gines are nearly twenty times as great. The con- 



i86 



ROBERT FULTON. 




H 






OCEAN STEAMERS. 187 

sumption of fuel averages about 350 tons a day. She 
has a crew of 370 men, and accommodations for 1,450 
passengers. One thousand electric lamps are required 
to furnish light. This wonderful vessel has crossed 
the Atlantic repeatedly in less than six days, and per- 
haps with the exception of the "Teutonic" has held 
a first place among the fastest steamers on the ocean 
up to the present time (1891). 

The sister ships " Teutonic " and " Majestic " are 
of about 16,000 tons displacement, — that is, their 
weight at sea is that amount, — and are the fastest 
ships in a fleet af about 85,000 tons total belonging 
to one company. The "Teutonic" has made the 
trip from Queenstovyn to New York in five days, nine- 
teen hours, and five minutes, at a speed averaging 
20.2 knots, or about 23.25 miles an hour, ^ a speed 
only rivalled by the sister ship and by the " City of 
Paris," which made its fastest trip in five days, nine- 
teen hours, and nineteen minutes. These ships are 
of 10,000 tons burden, registered, and their engines 
are of 17,000 horse-power. They are 582 feet long, 
57I feet wide, and 39 J- feet deep, of finest steel for 
ship construction, and can carry over 1,300 passen- 
gers, 3,000 tons of fuel, and 4,000 tons of cargo. 
There are twenty-five engineers, sixty firemen, and 
forty-eight coal-passers or trimmers, with supernume- 
raries, etc., which bring up the total engineer's roll to 
one hundred and sixty-eight persons. The crew con- 
sists of about forty men. There are twenty-five cooks 
and sixty " stewards." A full passenger-list gives a total 
of about sixteen hundred persons on board when at sea. 



1 88 ROBERT FULTOiV. 

The engines of these great ships are of the triple- 
expansion variety, two independent sets being em- 
ployed to drive twin screws. Their condensers 
contain twenty miles of brass tubes. The fires are 
forced by blowing- fans, which in the aggregate — 




Fig. 24. — The " Henry Grace De Dieu," and the " Great Eastern." 



fourteen in number — are capable of supplying about 
225,000 cubic feet of air per minute. One hundred 
and twenty tons of water are converted into steam 
each hour, and at a pressure of one hundred and 
eighty pounds per square inch. 



THE OUTLOOK, 189 

This would be sufficient for the supply of a city 
of over twenty-five thousand people, allowing twenty- 
five gallons per day to each. About 320 tons of fuel 
are required to convert the water into steam, each 
day, and the air needed for its combustion weighs 
about 275 tons. In the condensation of the steam 
about 4,000 tons of sea- water are passed through the 
condensers every hour, — the equivalent of the water- 
supply to a city of three-quarters of a million people. 

The outlook, in the direction of higher speeds and 
better accommodation in river and ocean navigation, 
judged by the knowledge which we now possess and 
from the standpoint of the engineer, may be said to 
be, practically, to-day, what it has been for many 
years, — a gradual and steady, though probably now 
comparatively slow, progress in both directions. The 
gradual increase of size of vessel, of power of machin- 
ery, and the improvement in form of the ship's lines, 
may be expected to go on, more and more slowly as 
we approximate more and more toward a limit set by 
Nature .to further extension and to that continually 
met with in the financial problem involved. As the 
costs of such growth increase in a high ratio, it is 
always the fact that it will not pay, at any given mo- 
ment, to very greatly increase speeds or improve 
accommodations ; but the state of the art of steam- 
navigation now reached is such that it is not likely 
that many will be found to mourn the fact that we 
advance no more rapidly. As the writer has elsewhere 
remarked : ^ — 

1 The Forum, 1888, — " Form and Speed of Ships." 



190 ROBERT FULTON, 

"The primary conditions are very readily deter- 
mined and specified ; but the working out of these 
conditions to a satisfactory result involves the appli- 
cation of principles which are the fruit of some of the 
most abstruse mathematical investigations, of the most 
ingenious and elaborate systems of experiment, and 
of the most extended and varied experience. In cer- 
tain directions we are to-day probably very near the 
limit of perfect construction ; but the conditions con- 
trolling the problem are so different where different 
ends 'are sought, and these differences lead to such 
apparently opposite lines of improvement, and to such 
varied forms of vessel, that it has been, and still is, to 
a certain extent, very difficult to reach correct for- 
mulas of application ; and probably few naval archi- 
tects have been able to acquire very distinct views of 
the best principles of design for specified purposes." 

The obvious conditions of maximum speed, irre- 
spective of other desiderata, as comfort, handiness, 
ease in a seaway, stability (all which must be consid- 
ered to a greater or less extent by the naval architect 
in designing a vessel), are — 

( 1 ) Maximum power in a given weight and space. 

(2) Minimum weight and volume of vessel. 

(3) Minimum frictional and other resistance of 
wetted surfaces. 

(4) Maximum perfection of form, having reference 
to the resistances to forward motion, and to lateral 
drift. 

In the steam vessel " stiffness " is unimportant ; and 
stability becomes essential only as affecting the motion 



THE OUTLOOK. 191 

of the ship in a seaway, and in giving safety against 
excessive rolling, or against overturn. 

To state these principles more in detail : maxi- 
mum power is obtained by designing light, powerful, 
and efficient engines and boilers, and by applying 
their energy to the instrument of propulsion in such 
manner as to lose the least possible proportion in 
friction and wasteful agitation of the water. The 
machinery must be as light as is consistent with 
strength and safety, and must be driven at as high 
speed, and under as high pressure as is practicable ; 
while economy in the use of steam and fuel is a hardly 
less important condition of excellence. Minimum 
weight and volume of vessel are secured in the case 
of the steamer, by reduction to a minimum of weights 
carried, and by the surrender of the space which is 
ordinarily claimed for comforts and conveniences. In 
both forms of vessel the material used in construction 
determines, to a great extent, what can be accom- 
plished in this direction. The increased use of iron 
and steel is bringing in much lighter hulls than could 
possibly have- been made in wood, and has given a 
degree of strength and safety which the wooden hull 
never possessed, and never could attain. The results 
of study of the forms of fishes, as developed by the 
Great Architect of Nature, with perfect adaptation to 
his purposes, and the comparison of the shapes of the 
best ship-forms yet produced by human ingenuity and 
skill, seem to the author to indicate that we have 
attained such perfection of form and proportion that 
no very great or rapid advance is reasonably to be 



\ 

192 ROBERT FULTON. 

expected in the near future, and that the problem of 
the fast vessel is substantially solved ; while further 
advances in speed must be expected mainly to come 
of devices for increasing propelling power, of new 
methods of securing lightness combined with stability, 
and perhaps, most of all, by increasing size of ship, as 
we have seen the size of ocean steamers increased. 
The limit of speed for vessels of usual sizes, whether 
using sail or steam, would seem to be already very 
nearly reached. Every gain now made must proba- 
bly be made only by the application of extraordinary 
care and skill, under the guidance of sound judgment 
and large experience. 



INDEX. 



Aqueduct improvements, by Ful- 
ton, 6^' 
Armored vessels, Pulton's, 157. 



Bernouilli's screw-propeller, 29. 
Bridge improvement, by Fulton, 
62. 



Clermont, building the, 101-126. 
Collins Line, starting the, 171. 
Compound Engine, construction, 

180. 
Cunard Line, organization of the, 

171. 

Death of Fulton, 140. 
Diving-boat of Fulton, 73. 

Engine, steam, compoimd, 180. 
Hero's 5 ; Marquis of Worces- 
ter's, 8 ; Newcomen's, 15; Sav- 
ery's, 9 ; Watt's, 20. 

Ericsson's vessels, 174, 

Experiments with steam, by Ful- 
ton, lOI. 

Ferry-boats, Fulton's steam, 

^37- 
Fitch's steamboat, 33-36. 



Fleets, modern, 146-183. 

Fulton as aqueduct builder, 63 ; 
artist, 48-52 ; author, 55 ; bridge 
constructor, 62 ; engineer, 60 ; 
inventor in submarine warfare, 
69 ; statesman, 58 ; death of, 
140 ; diving-boat, y^ ' ^^^ly life, 
48; education, 49; experiments 
on ship resistance, 11 1 ; with 
steam, loi ; firing guns under 
water, 79 ; first steamboat, 103 ; 
in London, 53 ; inventing canal 
improvements, 54; letter to Jef- 
ferson, 79 ; list of his steamboats, 
135 ; not the inventor of the 
steamboat, i ; on torpedo war- 
fare, 93 ; steam ferry-boats, 137 ; 
system of ship-railways, 14 ; the 
Clermont, 101-126 ; torpedoes, 

95- 
Fulton's armored vessel, 138. 
Fulton the First, the war-steamer, 

138. 

Guns, plan of firing under water, 
79- 

Henry's steamboat, 29. 
Hero's steam-engine, 5. 

Jouffroy's steamboat, 44. 



13 



194 



INDEX. 



Legends of the steam-engine, i. 
Lord Dundas's steamboat, 43. 



Marquis of Worcester's engine, 8. 
Millar, Taylor, and Symmington's 

steamboat, 41. 
Modern steam fleets, 146-183. 
Mowry's steamboat, 40. 



Nautilus, Fulton's, 76. 
Navigation, ocean and river, 146- 

149 ; submarine, 69. 
New York, description of the, 159. 



Ocean and river steamers, 146 ; 

steamers, 168. 
Outlook in steam-navigation, 189. 



Papin'S steamboat, 28. 
Principles of ship-propulsion, 189. 
Propellers, screw, 174. 
Puritan, description of the, 162. 



River and ocean steamers, 146 I 

navigation, 149. 
Rumsey's steamboat, 34. 

Screw, Bernouilli's, 34; propul- 
sion, 174. 



Ship-railways, Fulton's plans, 64. 

Ship resistance, Fulton on, 11 1. 

Smith's screw-propeller, 174. 

Speed of ships, requisites, 189-192. 

Steamboat, Babcock and Thurs- 
ton's, 157; D'Auxiron's, 43; 
Fitch's, 33-36 ; Fulton not its 
inventor, i ; Fulton's first, 103 ; 
Fulton's list of boats, 135 ; 
Growth of, in Great Britain, 156 ; 
Growth of in United States, 149 ; 
Henry's, 30 ; Hulls's, 29 ; Jouf- 
froy's, 44 ; Lord Dundas's, 43 ; 
Millar, Taylor, and Symming- 
ton's, 41 ; Mowry's, 40 ; Perier's, 
44 ; Roosevelt's, 46 ; Rumsey's 
34 ; Stevens's, 41, 116, 149 ; 
Thurston and Babcock's, 157. 

Steam fleets, modern, 146-183. 

Steam-engine. — See Engine. 

Steamers, modern, 167 ; ocean, 
146 ; river, 146. 

Stevens, John, his steamboat, 116; 
Robert L., inventions of, 149- 
154. 

Submarine navigation, 69. 

Torpedo warfare, 90. 
Thurston and Babcock's steam- 
boat, 157. 

Watt's condenser, 22 ; double- 
acting engine, 25 ; experiments, 
22 ; inventions, 23. 



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